Thomas Tuchel was announced as the new England manager way back on the 16th of October, 2024 and now, five months on, he has named his first squad as coach of the Three Lions. He only officially began his role on the 1st of January, 2025 and already he will have begun to understand what a tough job it is. The media scrutiny is up there with any position in football and his appointment was already somewhat controversial due to his nationality.
Tuchel, from Krumbach in West Germany, is the third overseas manager of the Three Lions (excluding caretaker Lee Carsley who may have played for Ireland due to his grandmother but was born and raised in the Midlands). Neither Sven-Goran Eriksson nor Fabio Capello enjoyed any real success and it was felt that an Englishman would get the nod after the relative success enjoyed by Gareth Southgate.
There are some who believe that nations, and certainly elite ones, should only be allowed to choose a manager or head coach from within their own ranks. Many other top footballing nations, including Italy and Tuchel’s own Germany, have never employed a foreign boss, and so the new manager was up against it with some fans and journalists from the off.
More recently, he has been criticised for not watching enough games involving his players and for his frequent trips back home to Germany. The short contract he was given was also an issue for many, with the belief that an 18-month deal meant he would have little or no interest in the bigger picture.
It seemed he had been given a simple brief to win the next World Cup, with less focus on other issues such as culture, youth development and creating a style of play. Of course, should Harry Kane lift the World Cup in New Jersey, USA, in the summer of 2026, then Tuchel, and the FA, will come out of all this very well. But anything other than glory will leave everyone feeling that English coaches and indeed English football have been set back for nothing.
Squad Announcement Confirms Concerns
Tuchel was hired because of his proven track record of winning and his knowledge of English football and players. He won the Champions League with Chelsea but has also lifted silverware as the boss of Borussia Dortmund, PSG and Bayern Munich. He speaks excellent English and was believed to have the tactical flexibility and innovative style that would be able to take the Three Lions one step beyond what Southgate could manage.
Tuchel’s first game in charge will be against Albania on the 21st of March and that is when we will have more to go on as to what he might bring and what we can expect. However, he recently named his squad for that game, and the match against Latvia three days later, and that gave us the first real clues. And critics were quick to – well – be critical, with fears that a short-term contract would lead to short-termism in general appearing to be well founded.
Full Squad for World Cup Qualifiers
Tuchel announced his squad on the 14th of March and since then Cole Palmer has dropped out, being replaced by Morgan Gibbs-White. The full squad is as follows:
Goalkeepers
Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Southampton), James Trafford (Burnley)
Defenders
Dan Burn (Newcastle United), Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Marc Guéhi (Crystal Palace), Reece James (Chelsea), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Tino Livramento (Newcastle United), Jarell Quansah (Liverpool), Kyle Walker (AC Milan, loan from Manchester City)
Midfielders
Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest) Jordan Henderson (Ajax), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)
Attackers
Jarrod Bowen (West Ham United), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Marcus Rashford (Aston Villa, loan from Manchester United), Dominic Solanke (Tottenham Hotspur)
Obvious Concerns
Whilst there are two new faces and one is a highly promising youngster in Arsenal’s Lewis-Skelly, the overall reaction to the squad has been muted, or neutral, at best. It just feels like for all the talk of Tuchel and his team supposedly looking at a wide group of over 50 players, the German has by and large played it safe. Moreover, the one or two players that could be viewed as a surprise are very much not ones for the future.
Jordan Henderson
The most contentious inclusion is almost certainly Jordan Henderson. The former Liverpool man has not played for England since 2023 and after a brief stint in Saudi football, signed for Ajax. He is a brilliant leader and very vocal, both on and off the pitch, but the Three Lions seem to have taken a step back by including a player who has not played at the highest level for a long time.
He is certainly not setting the Eredivisie on fire either: though Ajax lead the league, he has played less than 60% of the available minutes and started 58% of his team’s games. Henderson will be 36 by the time the World Cup starts too, so all in all he looks a strange pick.
Dan Burn
Dan Burn is also an odd selection for many. Whilst his story is a great one, he will be 34 come the World Cup, and does not seem to quite have the ability required to be a winner of a major tournament.
One thing that Burn and Henderson share, however, is that they are leaders, so perhaps Tuchel feels he is short on that elsewhere. Marcus Rashford has shown admirable qualities, indicative of leadership, off the pitch, through his charity work, but he too was a surprise call-up. His form at Villa has been decent but he has only played five PL games for the Villans and is yet to score.
Reece James
There is also a recall for Reece James, who Tuchel knows well from his Chelsea days, but the right back is very short on game time too. Injuries have hit him hard over the past few years and giving experience to Tino Livramento may have been favoured by many given it seems unlikely James will not suffer more fitness issues between now and the World Cup.
All in all it looks like a squad designed very much for the here and now, with little thought to the long term. Of course, Tuchel’s brief is to win the World Cup and they must qualify first but given the ease of their draw, his first squad does look like a missed chance to blood some younger players.
