England manager Thomas Tuchel has a wealth of attacking talent at his disposal but has made it clear that Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden cannot all play together.
Manager Thomas Tuchel has warned that all the big names will not be able to play together as next year’s World Cup draws ever closer.
The England manager has sent a clear message that there is not enough space to include Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden in the same line-up. Tuchel said the current 4-2-3-1 system cannot accommodate everyone and everyone will be in place for Thursday night’s game against Serbia and next year’s World Cup.
“If we maintain the structure we have at the moment, they won’t be able to play. We don’t like it, not because they don’t deserve it individually, but we will always do what’s best for the team and we’ll always do what’s best to win,” Tuchel said.
“We will always do what is best for balance and strive to maintain clarity even if we have to make difficult decisions.
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“We make tough decisions in every camp and that doesn’t change going into the tournament.”
Tuchel sees Kane as a full-fledged centre-forward, while Foden and Bellingham are both seen as number 10s who will play the role of playmakers behind the strikers. Foden is now considered capable of playing as a false nine in place of Kane, but gone are the days when the Manchester City forward could be played wide.
Former manager Gareth Southgate tried to bring in as many players as possible, but former caretaker manager Lee Carsley’s experiment in selecting everyone backfired when England lost at home to Greece.
Tuchel has made it clear that while it is possible to play in a different set-up, he definitely cannot play in his preferred tactical set-up or formation. He told talkSPORT: “They can do it, but not structurally. It’s not the balance that we’ve developed or the structure that comes with wingers like specialists in that position. At the moment we’re playing six, eight, 10, nine.”
“Especially in the number 10 position, when you think about Phil being able to play there, when you think about Jude, you think about Morgan Rodgers who played great in that position.
“We’ve got Cole Palmer, we’ve got Morgan Gibbs-White, we’ve got a lot of players and we might not get them all.
“I think Phil can play as a number nine and he can also play as a number 10. First of all, it gives him the advantage of competing for both positions. For Man City, he plays almost like a number eight or a number 10, so they will probably think of him as a number eight for the next few months.”
“But again, I think the odds of having five No. 10 players in the No. 10 position playing in the tournament are very, very, very low. I don’t see how this is going to help.”
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