With less than three months to go before England‘s World Cup starts against Croatia in Dallas, coach Thomas Tuchel has picked a mammoth 35-man squad ahead of two friendlies, against Uruguay on Friday and Japan next Tuesday.
With fringe players set to be given a game at Wembley this week before senior stars are called in to camp ahead of the second fixture, on Saturday, Tuchel is trying to cover all bases before selecting his final 26-man squad for World Cup 2026 in May.
With England, however, some issues remain the same just as new ones emerge to give Tuchel sleepless nights ahead of the biggest summer of his life.
Here Football Editor IAN LADYMAN looks at the questions Tuchel will hope to answer over the coming days.
Can Palmer make up for lost time?
Tuchel has made it clear that he doesn’t want to shoehorn talented players into his team so the fight for one place behind Harry Kane is on.
Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers are currently leading the race and while Tuchel has talked fancifully about Phil Foden playing as a back-up striker – we may see some of that off the bench against Japan next Tuesday – his message to Cole Palmer is crystal clear.
‘Honestly, he has to show because we have more evidence without him than with him so the pressure is on him,’ said Tuchel on Thursday. ‘He had a difficult season but he has also had a difficult spell with the national team. He was only once available for us and we decided to stick with the same squad so there is big competition for his best position.
‘We saw good data lately from Chelsea but we have had four training sessions and he needs to show up. He cannot hold back. He needs to understand he fights for his place and we will not hand anything to anyone on a silver platter.’
Bellingham is still recovering from a hamstring tear so the very most he will get from these games is a few minutes off the bench in game two. Currently the shirt is Rogers’ to lose going forward.
Tuchel feels he can do the creative part of the job while exhibiting the positional and team discipline that Bellingham sometimes lacks.
Chelsea talisman Cole Palmer has been told by Thomas Tuchel he has to ‘show up’ in training
What is his best central defensive partnership?
In Tuchel’s mind, it’s John Stones and Marc Guehi. Not only are they the two most gifted centre-backs available to him, they both now play for Manchester City.
But Tuchel knows he cannot take Stones’ fitness and availability for granted. Stones will be 32 by the time the World Cup starts but it’s not his age that’s the issue, it’s his failure to spend enough time on the field. Stones has actually started just four Premier League games this season and not a single one since a 5-4 win at Fulham in early December.
It stands to reason, then, that Tuchel needs another plan and it will be interesting to see if he turns to the Guehi-Ezri Konsa partnership when he fields something close to his first choice line-up against Japan next Tuesday. This is a duo that has every chance of starting the opening World Cup game against Croatia in Dallas in mid-June.
Tuchel has a huge regard for Dan Burn and he will be in the squad for the World Cup for sure. But Tuchel doesn’t see him as a starter and with good reason. Young Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal made mincemeat of him last week in the Nou Camp and that served to place the Newcastle defender’s limitations in stark context.
As for Harry Maguire, the Manchester United defender is expected to start Friday’s game against Uruguay but has much to do to actually make it on to the plane in June.
John Stones and Marc Guehi are England’s best defensive partnership – but the former hardly plays at the moment
Dos he have another international class right-back?
Reece James is Tuchel’s number one for this position by a country mile. Now that Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier have left the international scene, James in the only proven international right-back available to him in the Premier League.
But the Chelsea player has just suffered the 10th hamstring injury of his career and the thought of him playing eight games in a little over four weeks this summer already feels far-fetched.
Tuchel will not consider Trent Alexander-Arnold simply because he doesn’t fit the profile that he wants across his back four. The England coach is convinced World Cup 2026 will be a tournament of tight games, where set pieces will be influential and frugal defences king.
For all that Alexander-Arnold brings an X factor to any team he plays for, Tuchel feels he wants full-backs he can rely on defensively and this double-header of games feel as though it will represent an opportunity for Newcastle’s Tino Livramento.
Jarell Quansah has withdrawn injured and Ben White was only a late replacement for the Bayer Leverkusen player. Livramento, back to fitness now for Newcastle, has a chance to stake a claim.
Tino Livramento could get a big audition at right-back in this international break due to Reece James’ injury
Who plays at No 10?
It doesn’t seem long ago – it was actually in the autumn of 2024 when Lee Carsley was in charge – that we wondered if England could get Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden into the same team. Indeed Carsley did it once and England lost at home to Greece in the Nations League.
Now we have reached a point where we wonder whether there is room for all of them in the same 26-man World Cup squad. Tuchel has made it clear that he doesn’t want to shoehorn talented players in to his team if it upsets the balance so the fight for one place at No 10 behind Harry Kane is on.
Tuchel has talked fancifully about Foden playing as a back up striker and we may see some of that off the bench against Japan next Tuesday. But in terms of the creative role ahead of Declan Rice and Elliott Anderson, it’s currently a straight fight between Bellingham and Rogers.
Bellingham is still recovering from a hamstring tear so the very most he will get from these games is a few minutes off the bench in game two. This opens the door for Palmer and Foden against Uruguay on Friday.
Whoever gets minutes there had better make an impression because at the moment the shirt is Rogers’ to lose going forward. Tuchel feels he can do the creative part of the job while exhibiting the positional and team discipline that Bellingham lacks.
Despite his drop in form with Aston Villa, the England No 10 spot is still Morgan Rogers’ to lose
What does he do with Nico O’Reilly?
Tuchel feels blessed that Elliot Anderson appeared almost from nowhere to solve the problem of who should play alongside Rice in the centre of midfield. Anderson’s rapid progress was something the head coach hadn’t seen coming.
He now feels similarly grateful that City youngster O’Reilly has burst on to the scene too. O’Reilly, only 21 last Saturday, is a dream player for an international coach. Low maintenance but highly skilled and versatile enough to play on the big stage in more than one position.
O’Reilly has played 43 times for City this season and has looked equally comfortable for his club at full-back or in midfield. O’Reilly scored two goals from left-back as City beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday but has also featured in the centre of the field and even at No 10 this season.
In Tuchel’s mind, however, he is a left-back and is currently ahead of Lewis Hall and Djed Spence for the position in his team.
Nico O’Reilly is a dream for Thomas Tuchel – he is very versatile and is the favourite for the left-back slot
What happens without Harry?
It’s the question we ask ahead of every major tournament and with good reason. Kane has carried English attacking hopes on his shoulders in each of the last four major tournaments – scoring 15 goals in the process – but cannot be expected to soldier on for ever.
Kane is having another great season with Bayern Munich but was a passenger for much of Euro 2024 when he looked tired and heavy-legged. In the challenging climactic conditions of America this summer, the questions asked of the 32-year-old will be significant once again.
Tuchel has selected Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dominic Solanke for this camp but it will be a surprise if either go to the tournament. There is still more chance of Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins getting a call or Tuchel taking a left-field option such as playing Anthony Gordon or Marcus Rashford through the middle. When discussing the issue on the day he announced his squad last week, Tuchel was deliberate in dropping Gordon’s name into the conversation.
What is certain is that Kane will not be able to play eight 90-minute games this summer – without taking issues such as extra-time in to the equation – so Tuchel will need other plans. Hoping someone like Solanke can turn into an international calibre centre forward just by pulling an England shirt on is optimistic at best.
Harry Kane will not be able to play eight 90-minute games this summer – the race to deputise for him is crucial
Who are the good tourists?
Tuchel is obsessed with environment and with good reason. If England are to go all the way this summer, the squad will be away from the start of June until beyond the middle of July.
As such there will be no room for players who aren’t capable of fully buying in to the experience. ‘I want to be absolutely certain that we have a group that can enjoy weeks and weeks and weeks together,’ said Tuchel.
‘That we have the energy right, and we have the chemistry right. I spent a lot a lot of time recently looking at the schedule and the longer we will get, the more demanding it will become.
‘It will become very condensed. And there will be a lot of flights. And there will be a lot of time at airports. And there will be a lot of time together. And we have to get our chemistry right. And this is the most important thing.’
With this in mind, Tuchel will continue to lean on players like Burn and Jordan Henderson – who he feels score strongly in this area – while observing others such as Bellingham, about whom questions have been asked before.
My likely team for Croatia on June 17: Pickford; James, Konsa, Guehi, O’Reilly; Rice, Anderson; Saka, Rogers, Gordon; Kane.
