Southampton full-back Nathaniel Clyne praised by manager Ronald Koeman
Southampton manager Ronald Koeman believes England coach Roy Hodgson should be running the rule over right-back Nathaniel Clyne.
Clyne, who has scored twice in 64 games since joining Saints from Crystal Palace in the summer of 2012, has been capped eight times by his country at Under-21 level.
Speaking ahead of Saturday's clash with QPR, Koeman said: "In my opinion, Clyne is one of the best right full-backs that I've had in my teams during the last 15 years.
"That means a lot because I like to play with offensive right and left full-backs and he has those qualities, he's fast and gives good crosses.
"I'm happy but I'm not in the position to tell the national coach or somebody else about him. He shows his quality from the beginning of the season and if he continues like that he will get a call, for sure.
"If he shows his qualities game by game, then I'm sure he will finally get a call to be a national player."
And the Dutchman, whose side lie second in the Premier League table, is convinced his side's good start to the campaign is down to their defensive qualities.
"To win points, to win games, it starts at the back," he said. "It starts in defence. That's the reason that we bought Fraser Forster because he is a fantastic goalkeeper with a future in the club.
"We have a strong defence. It's all about organisation in the team and one time a week we do unit training. We make three groups and we have training for the defenders, for midfielders and for forwards.
"That is an example of how we try to do work the whole week. Building a house you don't start at the top, you start at the bottom. That makes winning teams.”