The England squad needs a reset but Thomas Tuchel hasn’t got time for that.
How Morgan Gibbs-White didn’t get picked originally is just beyond a joke. He’s played the whole season. Marcus Rashford’s played 10 minutes. But I’m not blaming Rashford, I’m blaming the FA for the contract that they’ve given Tuchel.
They’ve given him no time to get it right. He should have been given a longer deal with two World Cups and a European Championship.
He can’t afford to keep on looking at squads and seeing if Tom, Dick or Harry’s going to be all right for next year. He needs his team now. He needs to win a World Cup.
So, what’s he done? He’s just picked the same players because he knows they’re tried and tested, and he hasn’t got to worry.
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Tuchel says he wants to implement a direct and attacking style to reflect the values of the ‘strongest league in the world’, the Premier League
He’s done exactly the same which is why Jordan Henderson’s in it. He knows what you’re going to get. Does what it says on the tin.
And this is the problem, the FA have not given him enough time to look at players for six months.
Before you know it, the World Cup’s going to be here. Tuchel hasn’t got the time to build and look for the future.
You look at France, Germany, Spain, they rip it up and start again if it’s not going well. They might sacrifice one or two competitions to get over the line the next time. We don’t. I don’t know if it’s arrogance, pressure or what.
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Sky Sports senior reporter Rob Dorsett gives his verdict on Tuchel’s first England squad – one that included a fair few surprises!
We’re just steadily at the quarter-finals, semi-finals might get to the final like we have but we’re never winning anything. If you got points for coming first, second, third and fourth, we’d probably be top of the league over the last six tournaments because we’re always there.
But all the others, they rip it up, start over, get some youngsters in and by the time a tournament comes around again, they’ll be at 30, 40, 50 caps. But we don’t. We just keep on picking the same old players.
We pick the same team, the same players and we get the same result. We nearly win. And it’ll be the case next time. I don’t give us a chance at the World Cup. It’ll be too hot over there.
Tuchel is talking about playing at a higher tempo, a bit of a Premier League way, and I don’t think you’ll be able to do that in the heat in America.
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Dan Burn says he will play right wing if that means he will get on the pitch in an England shirt
It’s not like we’ve ripped the tournaments up. We’ve never ripped a tournament up. So then you get other players in and you see how they go. Some players take to international football and some players don’t. It’s as simple as that. And you might get a couple of gems.
But at the moment, he’s had to go with Henderson at 34 and he’ll be 36 at the World Cup. And people are saying to me he’s not playing at Ajax, so what’s he there for?
Tuchel won’t mess about. I think he’ll make substitutions at the right time. He won’t wait and wait and hang around. But I still think in four or five years’ time everybody will be saying what an unbelievable job Gareth Southgate did.
England squad
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Southampton), James Trafford (Burnley).
Defenders: Dan Burn (Newcastle United), Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Marc Guehi (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), Jordan Henderson (Ajax), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest).
Forwards: 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).
