It has been on Thomas Tuchel’s mind for some time, certainly since his England team secured qualification to the World Cup last November with the perfect record – played eight, won eight, zero goals conceded. The March international window, the last one before the finals in the summer, was always going to be less ideal.
It arrives at the moment when the club season enters its final stretch; trophies on the line, European places, survival or relegation. The lot. It is not as if the players have not already been pushed hard. Now rotation for the very best, the ones that Tuchel counts on, is simply not an option.
The camp remains vital and not only because Tuchel has been kicking his heels for more than four months, desperate to feel that connection with the squad again. It is a chance for him to work on the training ground and goodness knows there are not too many of those in the international game. Furthermore, there are players on the edges who are determined to push their cases for inclusion in the 26-man squad that Tuchel will take to the finals.
The flipside is that the games England play at Wembley against Uruguay next Friday and Japan four days later are friendlies. Do Tuchel’s main men really need that right now? How could he best handle a situation he describes as “messy”?
Tuchel felt he had to think outside the box. To come up with something fresh to keep his players that way. He wondered whether a few days of team bonding might be the answer but discounted it because it stood to frustrate those on the fringes. “Why are we paintballing, boss? I need to show you what I can do.” It was not a sentiment Tuchel wanted to hear.
He thought ever more deeply. He and his staff “broke their heads”, to borrow one of his favourite phrases. What he has come up with is without precedent. He hopes that it ticks the right boxes.
Tuchel has named 35 players in his squad and when it was confirmed on Friday morning, there was a bit of head-scratching. Unsure about your either/or choices, Thomas? Well, just pick everyone. Unless it is Trent Alexander-Arnold. Then he set about explaining himself and it made a lot more sense.
What Tuchel has done, essentially, is to pick two squads – even if there will be some players who are involved in both. There are 24 for the Uruguay game, four of them goalkeepers, with Jude Bellingham one of the outfield selections. The Real Madrid midfielder has not played since 1 February because of a hamstring injury and is slowly being reintegrated into training. He will not play against Uruguay. He may get minutes against Japan.
After Uruguay, Tuchel will send away a host of players and bring in 11 of his most established ones. They are Dean Henderson, Marc Guéhi, Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn, Nico O’Reilly, Elliot Anderson, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane. If the World Cup was tomorrow, Tuchel would pick each of them.
He did not want to say who would leave the group, apart from that Cole Palmer and Phil Foden would not do so, meaning all of his specialist No 10s will be around for Japan – those two plus Bellingham and Rogers. This does not include Eberechi Eze, who can play as a No 10 or off the wing. Tuchel said Foden would “stay on [in] the No 9 position”. It is highly unlikely that Tuchel will take all of them to the World Cup; he has kicked the decision to the end of the season.
Tuchel added that he had identified those who would most likely depart after Uruguay and told them, albeit there was a chance some could play their way into staying. The maximum number of outfield players he will have for Japan will be 23; it may be 21 or 22. The plan is rooted in clarity and transparency, trying to be as sensible as possible.
“I see that the likes of Bukayo Saka, Morgan Rogers, Elliot Anderson – they have more minutes than they had in the whole of last season,” Tuchel said, albeit that is not yet the case with Rogers. “Then I look at their schedule and consider: ‘Will Morgan Rogers get a rest at Aston Villa with them in the Europa League and fighting for the Champions League [qualification]?’ Absolutely not. And that is fair. I would not rest him if I was his coach.
“So if we want to have him not fully exhausted in June … we will have him exhausted, it’s just the nature of the amount of games … I think we will benefit from this [plan] and even in the short-term now.”
Tuchel said the 11 who will not join up until after the Uruguay game understood his thinking; they “know there is no hidden agenda to it” and actually appreciated the rest. He drilled down into some of the finer details. For example, how Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who have been recalled, would appreciate having a clear run at the Uruguay game without the presence of Kane.
Is it perfect? No. “There is an unfair element to it,” Tuchel said. “A player will say: ‘Can I not play [against Uruguay] with Harry Kane and Declan Rice next to me?’” Equally, Tuchel’s conclusion was hard to dispute. “It felt at times a bit messy,” he said. “And this solution felt the least messy.”
