Thomas Tuchel has not been wearing the special and rather expensive shoes that his England players have been given by team sponsors this week with the rather optimistic promise that they will aid their mental clarity. It’s perhaps as well. At the age of 52, Tuchel is too far into middle age to believe in such corporate witchcraft.
But the England manager says he doesn’t want for certainty and focus when it comes to the matter of his team for game one of World Cup 2026.
Tuchel didn’t demure when it was put to him on Wednesday that he knows eight of the eleven players he hopes will start for him next summer. It is, he says, important for players to arrive in America aware of their place in the hierarchy.
‘If it started tomorrow that is about right,’ said Tuchel when asked by Daily Mail Sport about the eight starters. ‘I think that is a good thing and I think the players in May or June should know it. It is the situation at the moment.
‘Anything can change at a tournament but it’s good to be clear with the players. Because when someone arrives he knows either “I am the one to defend my position or I am the one to challenge the guy in the position.”
‘He can think: “What does it look like to challenge Harry Kane for his position? What do you expect from me, coach? Do you want me to push him every day in training, to bully him?”
‘It’s always like this but we need to have the roles clear and then the players know where to compete, where to play. They will have played with each other and can go from there.’
Continuity is now entrenched as a theme with Tuchel only eight games into his tenure. It’s the reason we will see a less than experimental team against Serbia at Wembley on Thursday.
In terms of the spine of that team for America, it currently goes: Jordan Pickford, Reece James, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane. Questions remain over left-back, number ten and left-side midfield.
It feels strange to say that about the role behind Kane but the acceleration of Morgan Rogers in that position has been exceeded only by that of Anderson in nailing down the spot alongside Declan Rice in the heart of the midfield.
Rogers of Aston Villa has a niggle and may give way to the returning Jude Bellingham on Thursday. But the fact Bellingham’s position in the team – and indeed Phil Foden’s on the plane next June – are under threat says everything for the pace of evolution and change since the end of the Gareth Southgate reign.
Listening to Tuchel speak at Tottenham’s training ground on Wednesday, warnings for Foden in particular were everywhere. Indeed it seems as though the Manchester City player’s greatest strength may prove to be versatility. A possible number ten. A possible number eight. A possible number nine. In all likelihood, then, a substitute.
Tuchel felt a spark had gone from Foden’s eyes at the end of last season and, now that it has returned, other players have simply swept by the 2024 double player of the year winner.
What is ever more clear about Tuchel is that he will not now be swayed from this path of meritocracy. He is, for example, bemused by the ongoing fuss about his treatment of Bellingham. To him, the Real Madrid Galactico is just one of 50 or 60 players widely available to him.
He is not deaf to the debate about some of his choices nor indeed from the kerfuffle that followed his mild criticism of the Wembley crowd after England beat Wales in a friendly last month. Equally, he says he will not change.
‘Do I regret saying it about the fans?,’ asked Tuchel when the subject was raised.
‘No. It was a genuine reaction.
‘If you go in life and you only say [what people want to hear] then you become a fish. You dribble around every corner just to avoid [offence]. I am not a fish.
‘Some people didn’t like it? Ok. Sometimes I don’t like what people say about me and it’s just what it is.
‘Of course I want the atmosphere to be like Boca v River Plate but it’s not the World Cup. It’s not the semi-final or the first group match and the crowd knows it as well.
‘We accept it will be different and try, still, to get the spark and inspire the crowd. It’s always up to us to lift the crowd and I think we did in the last in the last match, and we will try to do it again.’
England’s 5-0 dismissal of Serbia in Belgrade in September stands as an early turning point in Tuchel’s reign. His team’s three previous games had seen then play dismally in twice beating Andorra with those games sandwiching a dire home defeat to Senegal at the City Ground.
That night featured Bellingham kicking a water bucket over as he briefly went to challenge a fourth official at full-time. The very next day, Tuchel sat down with talkSPORT and described some of the player’s behaviour as repulsive.
If he starts, Bellingham can focus once again on kicking a football on Thursday. He hasn’t played for England since that night in Nottingham and much has changed. Tuchel will look for not only a willingness to bow to the needs of the collective but also some positional discipline on the field.
‘Everyone is happy to be in camp and the attitude and energy on the training pitches is where we want it to be,’ said Tuchel.
‘We have one more training session to go to be competitive and Jude is a part of it, of course.
‘No-one is giving us any signals that this may be a good time to rest because we have already qualified and we will also not accept it. So it’s an energy that feeds itself.
‘This is at the moment where we are and it’s very precious to keep that. It’s the absolute key for me, before tactics, before personnel and whatever.
“That is the key: everyone loves to be in camp, loves to play for England and enjoys it. We are going the right way.’
