Thomas Tuchel will announce his first England squad at 9 am today with speculation around three possible call ups, Ben White, Marcus Rashford and Reece James.
England play Latvia and Albania on 21 and 24 March, and Tuchel has just seven international windows and roughly 450 days between now and the ultimate challenge of winning the 2026 World Cup.
Tuchel will announce his first England squad today
Tuchel has planned first England squad today to take into account the English players playing on Thursday in Europe for Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea.
Three Lions prepare for the start of World Cup qualifying and here are some of the talking points around Tuchel’s first England squad today, including some regulars and long term potentials. Also will he bother with younger players, since he only has an 18 month contract?:
Forwards
Kane a definite but injuries and poor form limit attackers, the fresh talent of Ethan Nwaneri, Liam Delap tipped as a long term replacement for Kane.
Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish are all out of form, Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke are injured. They are competing with Anthony Gordon, Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers
Defenders
Will luke Shaw get another chance, and what about Newcastle defender Lewis Hall, will Ben White return? And a surely Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly must get his debut?
Midfielders
Will Palace midfielder Adam Wharton be called up?
Kobbie Mainoo took that role at Euro 2024 but is currently injured, whilst Carsley introduced Angel Gomes, Morgan Gibbs-White and Curtis Jones
Formation
Will selection give any clues of a 4-2-3-1 formation or 3-4-2-1? In terms of formation, Tuchel has used both the 4-2-3-1 formation and a variation of 3-4-2-1, which he implemented at Chelsea in an impressively short amount of time for Champions League glory.
Tuchel has spoken to more than 55 players on the phone to “build connections” and he needs those relationships because he has very direct style of management, he lets you know what he thinks.
Similar to how he sets up his sides, he’s not afraid of going direct long ball attacking style. His sides can be described as organised, pragmatic and dynamic with an extremely high level of detail put onto each player.