Tuchel, England and the sides of March
March dawns imminently and international football returns. The road to the 2026 World Cup begins for England with qualifiers at Wembley against Albania and Latvia they will expect to win. And the cycle of hope will turn again. After so much talk about whether England should appoint a foreigner again, and the ridiculous obsession with Thomas Tuchel’s travel plans and match attendance, we can all breathe a sigh of relief and talk about the football. There will finally be “reference points” from the games to assess Tuchel’s style.
We will learn whether Tuchel believes England’s players are best suited to a 3-4-2-1 formation – a departure for most of the players from club systems and Gareth Southgate’s approach – or 4-2-3-1. Tuchel has shown his flexibility in his club career. One thing we do know already is that Tuchel will work with the most promising collection of young players ever gifted an England manager. And he has the experience of thirtysomethings Jordan Pickford and Harry Kane at either end of the pitch like teachers shepherding a school outing.
Pickford rightly remains England’s No 1 but it will be interesting to see whether the rise of the 22-year-old James Trafford accelerates. Kane had a disappointing Euros by his high standards but knows Tuchel well from their time at Bayern Munich. Kane is hardly slowing up in front of goal: he’s scored 29 goals in 32 games for Bayern this season, including seven in the Champions League, although none in meetings with Aston Villa and Paris St-Germain (he did score at the Nou Camp).
Tuchel has been travelling around, watching games, and also looking at videos. He’s reportedly looking at a long-list of 50, which seems a lot given the make-up of the Premier League. Some names are already ruled out: Kieran Trippier has retired internationally, Kyle Walker is 34, so is Jordan Henderson and he’s not always starting at Ajax. Ivan Toney is in Saudi.
The available options will surely excite Tuchel, not only the quality in many positions but the quantity. We could even see a starting XI without Phil Foden, an elite performer at his best, James Maddison, a level below Foden but still very influential, and the charismatic Jack Grealish.