Lee Carsley hopes to have helped Thomas Tuchel by being different with his selection and approach during his interim England reign – something that has led to praise and some service station sermons.
Sunday’s Nations League clash with the Republic of Ireland marks the end of his six-game stint as Gareth Southgate’s interim successor, with Tuchel starting his quest to win the 2026 World Cup in the new year.
Carsley returns to his post as England Under-21s boss having leant on many young talents he knows well from last year’s European Championship triumph in Georgia.
That influence will be evident again as he looks to end his reign with a Wembley win against the nation he represented as a player, which would mean handing over to Tuchel on the back of Nations League promotion.
Asked if he would like to do the England job on a permanent basis one day, Carsley said: “What we have shown as a staff is that we can do it.
“I think it is really beneficial to the FA that we are in the building if needs be. In 18 months, who knows.
“I think tomorrow will have a big weight on that in terms of can we get the job done? Can we get promotion, which sets us up for the World Cup draw?
“It’s an experience that I have enjoyed. Not looking too far ahead of tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to hopefully doing well, winning the game, and then hopefully retaining the title in the summer with the 21s.”
Carsley has tried to change things during his caretaker role with England, who have reached two finals in their last three tournaments but “as close as we got we haven’t won yet”.
“Naturally I think you always want to do things that are comfortable and cause you the least amount of harm,” Carsley said. “But I’m not sure we’re going to get anywhere quickly by doing that.
“That is something that I have tried to do, to try and be courageous with some of the selections, try to be a little bit different sometimes with the way we play.”
There remains work to do but he hopes to “leave this squad in a strong place” and believes “Thomas will have a lot more players available to him” having handed out six debuts so far this autumn.
There are four more uncapped players hoping to feature at the end of a camp that Carsley says Harvey Elliott and Jacob Ramsey would have been involved in had they been available.
Such focus on youth has led to positive feedback from fans as he prepares to go back to the under-21s having started getting used to the scrutiny that comes with leading the senior side.
“What I have seen, when I have been out and about, is it feels like the people I talk to, the fans, are really connected with the team,” the England boss said.
“They like the fact that it looks younger, it looks energetic, it looks fresh. They’ve been quite positive.
“It makes me laugh that everyone’s got an opinion on the team and the players and the squad.
“I’m on the road a lot, so service stations is where I seem to get the most advice. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good.
“I seem to meet a lot of West Ham fans, so very Jarrod (Bowen) heavy so that’s why he’s back!
“What’s the best advice? I’ve had quite a bit, to be fair. It’s mainly team selection.
“I was in a queue in a Starbucks and a fella was talking about the false nine and the tactics, after the Greece game. I just wanted a soy latte!”
Carsley expects to share a coffee with Tuchel sooner rather than later as he prepares to hand over the baton to the new England boss.
“First of all, we’ll debrief with all of the staff and then we will do a debrief with the coaching staff on the three camps – not necessarily just the one game, the camps in general,” he added.
“Then the plan will be I will feed it back into Thomas and (Football Association technical director) John McDermott.
“I’m not sure I will give him a lot of advice. He is in a better position than I am in terms of the amount of experiences he’s had and the staff he has got.”
