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Given Thomas Tuchel has 18 months to shape a team for the finals in North America – our experts assess his options and likely choices
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Thomas Tuchel takes charge of England from January 1 with one clear remit – to win the World Cup.
Tuchel has avoided a Nations League promotion play-off and can concentrate on World Cup qualification when he takes charge, with Lee Carsley insisting the squad that reached the European Championship final last summer is now in better shape.
All roads lead to the World Cup in 2026, but can Tuchel finally get England over the line at a major tournament, 60 years on from the country’s finest hour in 1966? Who will Tuchel call upon at the tournament and is Harry Kane still the man to lead the line?
Telegraph Sport’s experts pick their potential starting XIs:
Left-back is Thomas Tuchel’s biggest headache heading into the World Cup, which is why I think he will try to mould Reece James into a makeshift option. James has played on the left this season for Chelsea, so it may be an option that develops between now and 2026. Kyle Walker will be 36 when the World Cup starts, but I predict Tuchel will lean on his experience and leadership. And will he drop Harry Kane? No way.
Trent Alexander-Arnold could solve England’s left-back problem, as he did against Finland – one of the options Lee Carsley created for Thomas Tuchel. He should spend most of the time “inverted” anyway and dictating play from central midfield. It is an attacking line-up but gets his best players into the team in an attacking line-up. Phil Foden is a big call but Tuchel needs to keep faith with him.
The big question marks are over Jordan Pickford and Harry Kane, who are already in their thirties. Is there anyone coming up through the ranks who can depose those two stalwarts of the national team? Ollie Watkins is the obvious alternative to Kane but, at 28, he is hardly an up-and-comer. Young Liam Delap is impressing at Ipswich Town but it would require a remarkable turn of events for him to be threatening Kane by the summer of 2026. At the back, Lewis Hall looks to be the best of the young left-backs and Levi Colwill is in the process of establishing himself as one of the Premier League’s most reliable left-sided central defenders.
Loads of ifs, buts and maybes here and, in reality, this team would probably be less than the sum of their considerable parts. It will be on Thomas Tuchel to determine if he can realistically shoehorn Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden into the same team or if it needs to be two of the three. Declan Rice needs a natural No6 alongside him so maybe an Adam Wharton-type steps forward and England have to have a left-footer at left-back. Luke Shaw, if fit, is still the best option there, but Thomas Tuchel will hope a solution materialises in one of his problem positions over the course of the next 19 months. Harry Kane, at centre-forward, is probably a call to make in time. For now, he is still England’s best striker.
Horrible memories of the evergreen virality of The Sun’s 2007 attempt to pick the England team of the future, which included Michael Johnson, Dean Parrett and several others who sank without trace. Nevertheless, assuming Thomas Tuchel uses a 4-2-3-1 formation, which he has for much of his career, I would expect some age-related changes in defence and an attempt to find the feted balance by going with function over celebrity further forward, leaving Phil Foden and Cole Palmer as ridiculously strong options off the bench. Harry Kane’s status is the big question mark, but I would lean towards him still starting by the time England kick off against Uzbekistan in the punishing heat of Hard Rock Stadium, Miami.
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