Thomas Tuchel says he is brave enough to leave out big names, and that England selection will be about best behaviour and helping everyone to be better and to grow, as he hailed “team work in its purest form”.
“The competition is on,” added the Three Lions boss.
England offered up by far their best performance of Tuchel’s reign so far with a supreme 5-0 win away to Serbia, despite heavy-hitters like Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham missing the game through injury. Morgan Rogers, Noni Madueke and Elliott Anderson instead starred, giving the manager the sort of selection puzzle that he enjoys. The key was how coherent England looked, raising questions over whether Tuchel wants to disrupt that.
“I am always brave,” Tuchel smiled. “You know that. But I don’t talk now about hypothetical names that can be left out. Let’s see who’s fit and available. I think we took some brave decisions already. We nominated a squad of only 21 to keep the competition going.”
Tuchel also said that personal conduct will be part of his thinking
“The competition is on,” he explained. “If you are in camp, you are on your best behaviour, in your best shape, best form and you make the best of it. It’s a privilege to be in camp and then fight for your place. If you can help everyone to be better and to grow and this is what we did.
“I think the whole camp from start to finish was a brilliant camp and the players showed it today and I am very happy because they showed what I saw this week, the spirit and the quality and how they were off the pitch.”
Tuchel said this attitude came from a “new start”. The manager was unnerved by the nature of his second camp, a June break that brought a narrow 1-0 win away to Andorra before the 3-1 friendly defeat to Senegal. With many players fatigued after a long season, though, Tuchel decided the best response was to simply use it for instruction and what could be improved. He and his staff realised they needed to simplify some of their approach.
“We try to be very clear to the players and have a new start,” said Tuchel. “I was happy with the first camp although I was not so happy with the second camp but we said, ‘OK, if it’s a learning, it can be a very important camp’.
“One of the learnings was ‘we need clarity, the players need clarity, how do we play, what is the structure and where do I compete’ because the competition is on. We told them, showed them and trained them very, very clearly because the rules need to be clear,with everyone coming from a different club, from a different style. From there, step by step, the intensity increased, the accuracy came and I’m happy that it all clicked [against Serbia].”
It was put to Tuchel that previous campaigns have been beset by over-reliance on certain stars, or attempts to try and fit in all of the biggest names, as in the Steven Gerrard-Frank Lampard debate.
“This is a team sport,” he responded. “This was team work in its purest form. They have the quality to play for us and the hunger to play for their country and everyone gets his chance.
“If a big player misses out on a tournament, we need to have solutions, if he misses a camp, we need to have solutions. We have to focus on the guys who are available and who are ready to be the best versions of themselves and the best teammate possible and this is what we did.”
With England now close to qualification for the 2026 World Cup, the manager was holding a copy of a celebrated book about Italia 90, All Played Out by Pete Davies. He admitted his fascination with the English team goes back to that tournament, as he spoke engagingly about his enduring love of the World Cup.
“I was watching like crazy, I was Chris Waddle with the collar up in my garden,” laughed Tuchel, gesturing popping his collar. “I was Paul Gascoigne, and I was all these kinds of guys.
“I was 17 then, I think my first, there was no internet, there was no online focusing, there was just this book that you always got from the Euros and from the World Cup, and I always got it as a present, either for my birthday or for Christmas. We had these books and all the photos from every match of a World Cup.
“I read these things for four years, I knew every player, I looked at their shoes and their style and this was something magical. If you know that from me, you know what it means to me to hopefully go to a World Cup, what it means to me to qualify and go with England. It’s just a brilliant moment in my journey – I enjoy it a lot and I will give my very best.”
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