5 players who need to prove themselves before Euro 2016

Life in international football can be tough. You can spend 2 years qualifying for a tournament and all of a sudden you either drop out of form or an injury leaves you watching the tournament from home wondering what on earth happened? Players need to consistently perform for their clubs to make a bid for starting positions with their national teams. Most national squads often have more than 2-3 players competing for all positions so the battle to make it at the national level, especially in a competitive tournament is difficult.With the European Championships in France just a year away, there are many players who were once regulars in their national teams but have fallen out of favour, this might be the last chance for them to stake a claim for a chance to represent their country at Euro 2016.Let’s take a look at 5 players who need to prove themselves to their international managers this season to make their national team’s squads.

#5 Eliaquim Mangala

The French centre half was bought from Porto for a massive sum by Manchester City and has done nowhere near enough to justify even a fraction of it. With just 5 appearances for the national side he’s struggled to displace players such as Laurent Koscielny, Mahmadou Sakho, and Raphael Varane.

Taking into account the way Manchester City operate there’s a good chance they might not wait for Mangala to develop into the player they were after and sign an immediate replacement for him, leaving him with even less minutes than what he’s already getting, and a hard job of proving to his national manager he’s his man.

If that happens and Mangala could find his playtime even more limited next season in Manchester he could be in trouble and may not even find himself in the squad at all, let alone on the bench. If Mangala get’s the opportunity to secure the starting centre-half spot beside Vincent Kompany at all this season he can’t pass it up at this stage in his career. It’s sink or swim for Mangala and he most likely knows it.