SEAN Dyche believes Nick Pope could have put a 'seed of doubt' in Gareth Southgate's mind with good performances in England training.

While Pope didn't win his first cap for the Three Lions during the international break, he did spend more than a week training with the squad.

With only three goalkeeping spots available on the plane for Russia for the World Cup Pope looks to be the outsider, behind Jordan Pickford, Jack Butland and Joe Hart.

But Dyche believes the Burnley man could still have impressed last week, despite not making it onto the pitch against Holland or Italy.

"I think you can put in a seed of doubt," the Clarets chief said.

"If the manager is thinking I'm not sure but you work with someone and think actually they're a really good player, sometimes better than you think.

"I don’t know. I get on with Gareth, and he always accepts my calls, likewise me to him. I give him a far assessment of what the players are doing for us but I’d never pick a team, squad for him. It's definitely difficult when you're England manager."

While Pope and James Tarkowski were away with England Jack Cork and Ben Mee missed out, with the former unable to build on the cap he won against Germany in November.

"I thought Corky was a bit unlucky," Dyche said. "Ben equally for different reasons, a different position.

"The overriding thing is Gareth’s his own man, he's picking players on what he thinks. Maybe in the past it was looking to the top end of the club market but he’s just looking at players.

"Whether at Burnley or not they're good players and they're playing well. That’s a good thing for clubs like us and it's a powerful thing, players believe more. They think I can get picked by this manager while I'm at Burnley."