Five months after the announcement his appointment, Thomas Tuchel takes the England reigns for the first time on Friday night, Wembley playing host to the Three Lions opening World Cup qualifier against Albania. After all the time he has had to ready himself for a first role in international management, the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss will be able to hear the ticking clock.
Barring the greatest disaster in England’s footballing history, 15 months from now this team will be at the start of their World Cup journey. Tuchel will need no reminding that the expectations for him in North America are straightforward. Gareth Southgate had eight years to attempt to address the mindset of the English national team, to develop a pathway to a senior side that enjoyed being around each other, and to take the nation from dreamers to believers to, erm, expectors. Now Tuchel has to win the World Cup, somehow ensuring his squad doesn’t get buried under the weight of 60 years of hurt. That’s two “Three Lions.” That’s Six Lions.
Watching from afar last summer as England somehow made it to the final of the European Championships in spite of themselves, Tuchel could see a squad inhibited by expectations, one of the most talented squads in the world unable to express those qualities together, incapable of imposing a style on themselves or their talent on their opponents.
“What I felt watching the Euros, I felt tension and pressure on the shoulders of the players,” said Tuchel. “It felt to me that they were more afraid, they were playing not to lose and not to have even more pressure added maybe in the home country than the excitement to maybe make something special happen.
“I think we need to turn this around, we have so many experienced players, so many players who won the trophies with their clubs. And I think we have every right to be self-confident but every journey starts as it is with the first match and the first steps.”
That will have to change in a short time indeed, starting with qualifiers at home to Albania and Lativa. Here are some of the key questions on how Tuchel might impact England.
Will there be a plan B?
The most common refrain throughout Tuchel’s early utterances has been the six training camps between England and the World Cup opener. That might be only around 20 training sessions, scarcely enough time to drill down into great detail from a manager whose best sides have reflected an obsessional commitment to sweating the small stuff. In that time there can be no reasonable expectations as to who will be available to the new manager.
Take this opening week. What might be the most talented right flank available to England is nowhere to be seen, Trent Alexander-Arnold having just picked up an ankle injury and Bukayo Saka on the comeback trail after his hamstring operation. Cole Palmer too is missing after a muscular issue that kept him out of Chelsea’s final match before the break. Such absentees will surely be the norm in almost every camp between now and the summer of 2026. There simply is no time to rest otherwise. Tuchel will need an approach that allows him to adjust to Harry Kane missing one camp, John Stones the next.
Meanwhile, there is a theoretical needle to be threaded between the standard of opposition England will face on the way to the World Cup and the top-tier opponents they will have to overcome in the latter stages. Southgate struggled to keep the public on side in the later years because he was viewed as too cautious. Tuchel’s base operating model since his time at Paris Saint-Germain has largely been a form of defensive possession that prioritizes control over free scoring. That might be a hard sell when he is expected to entertain while qualifying with ease.
The solution he alighted on in his press conference was rather to ignore the suggestion that the qualification group might be easy. Asked about Friday’s opponents with the implication that Albania might be a team to be beaten well, Tuchel’s response suggested he would make the sort of adaptations to them that he might have against Eintracht Frankfurt or RB Leipzig in a past job.
Describing his approach he said: “Offensively we try for sure to implement our style and implement our structure and implement our rhythm from now on and put players into positions where they feel comfortable and put players into position where they can express themselves hopefully to their full potential. But in modern football and then in the quality also of the opponent Albania and the respect that you have to give every opponent, especially also off the ball, it is necessary that we stay open to adapt, be it structure-wise if it makes sense or in the line-up and do what is needed.
“I don’t think we can be ignorant and just say we do what we want and we do what we do and everyone else will adapt to us. This will happen but everyone will also try to find solutions against us and that’s why we want to be open to adapt off the ball to the structure and qualities of our opponent and this will be a start tomorrow,” he said.
Given time constraints it seems unlikely that Tuchel will have multiple go-to approaches drilled into this squad, instead the suggestion seemed to be a base template that can be adapted to the strength of the opposition. Whether that might be framed around a three or four man defense is, for now, something that the new boss is keeping close to his chest.
Which big names have to make way?
Whatever the system, the great joy and curse of the current England player pool is that Tuchel will never be short of options. Certainly, it is a pleasure to pick your best midfield from the likes of Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Palmer. The problems come when it goes wrong. There will always have been a better option on the bench.
By the end of Southgate’s reign, he seemed to bumping against just those problems. Foden had been the best player in the Premier League last season, Bellingham the best in La Liga, Saka had been England’s most reliably performing attacker in every camp. The three just couldn’t fit together. Even when the latter was a wing back with Kieran Trippier on the opposite flank, everything about the build-up just collapsed infield. Even those talents couldn’t glide through half a dozen opposition bodies.
With captain Kane seemingly a lock, Tuchel is going to have to put together a system that works around a low-touch penalty box forward who has to be urged not to drop into midfield and out of play. That will surely also necessitate a player somewhere in the XI who stretches the opposition high and wide, perhaps Anthony Gordon on the left or attack-minded wing backs like Tino Livramento and Reece James could be.
Add to that a desire to play in a particularly English way — “you can light up a stadium so easily in the Premier League with one tackle, one header” — and you might at least have the outline of a system that players can fit themselves in to rather than a more freewheeling approach that leaves everyone unclear as to who is doing what when.
“I felt that the team maybe in the Euros were not, how should I put this, free enough to express themselves in a stable structure,” said Tuchel. “But England was not the only team to change structure from match to match. I think we have to make sure that when we play now that everyone knows its role on the field, also accepts its role and plays disciplined in its role.”
Can Tuchel keep the good vibes?
That Tuchel feels empowered to question the approach of England’s most successful manager in a lifetime speaks to how swiftly he has settled into this role. The skepticism that greeted a German arriving at the home of football has subsided and while expectations are building he seems utterly at ease. His players too seem happy with their new boss.
“With Thomas, he brings a lot more energy and enthusiasm, brings a lot of passion when he’s talking,” said Kane, who spent last season scoring goals for fun under Tuchel. “He was a big reason why I went to Bayern Munich in the first place. I know his attributes and I know how good a coach he is and all the boys have been impressed with him.”
Tuchel himself seems to be buzzing with excitement now that he is back on the training pitch, similarly relishing the table tennis and darts matches in evenings where at club level his players would have gone back home. “They reminded me instantly in the first meeting, first lunch together and then the first training session why I was so excited about the job,” he said of his squad.
So far so early stages Tuchel. In his early months at Stamford Bridge he lit up west London. The Chelsea fan base still love him first and foremost for the trophies they won but many supporters will praise the leadership he offered to a club in trying circumstances. At Bayern too his impact was immediate, despite a wobble at the finish line he shepherded the Bavarians to another Bundesliga title having taken the reigns late in the 2022-23 campaign.
Then that blew up in a storm of acrimony, much as it had at Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and even Chelsea. For many of those above him in particular, the day-to-day grind and demands grow wearying. Few players or executives question Tuchel’s qualities as a coach. Plenty seem to find him hard to work with.
Will that change when Tuchel is thrust into football’s nearest approximation for semi-frequently visiting dad, an international coaching gig? That might not become apparent until England are locked down with their manager for a month (at least they hope) next summer. Tuchel appears to be saying the right things, emphasizing how he wants his players to be embiggened by the prospect of winning the World Cup rather than diminished by fear of not doing so.
Viewing information
- Date: Friday, March 21 | Time: 3:45 p.m. ET
- Location: Wembley Stadium — London
- Live stream: Fubo (Try for free)
- Odds: England -700; Draw +700; Albania +1600
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