Part of the reason why the England men’s team is under incessant scrutiny, and why it remains the Impossible Job, is that fandom requires an almost constant cognitive dissonance.
The news that England have qualified for their ninth consecutive major tournament and done so not only with a 100% winning record but without conceding a single goal is simultaneously impressive and underwhelming.
Finding qualification easy can only be a good thing, yet by happening so regularly there is an implicit understanding not much can be gleaned about how England will fare in the knockouts in the Americas. Nor will they at any point before next summer, either, with qualifiers against Serbia (h) and Albania (a) to be followed by friendlies against Uruguay and Japan in March.
But for once, the international break actually meant something. England can now turn their attention fully to the 2026 World Cup – and they do so with a pretty good grasp of what the Thomas Tuchel era is all about.
Jude Bellingham’s absence was by far the biggest story, not just for the size of the call but for what it symbolised. Tuchel has more superstar experience than any other England manager in history, having managed big egos at Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, and here we are seeing arguably his greatest asset in action.
There have been no direct reports about Bellingham’s behaviour or attitude, but reading between the lines of Tuchel’s press conferences we can guess that the Real Madrid playmaker does not quite fit with the culture – or the hierarchy of power – he is trying to create. In some contexts Bellingham’s aura, his leadership role taken up in spite of his young age, is helpful. For England, it might grate slightly.
The rejection is a warning shot from Tuchel and Bellingham is highly likely to play in next year’s World Cup but the signal sent is a significant one, especially after two powerful, slick, and coherent England performances in qualifying.
The lesson from this break is that Tuchel is building a team, is managing England as if it is a club side. This is the benefit of hiring a foreigner, an outsider, because only in England is the national side seen as an exercise in picking the 11 most talented footballers and cramming them onto the pitch together. Only in England does a short spell of club form lead to clamours for an international call-up.
The most successful nations recognise that chemistry and the balance of the side is considerably more important than star quality. It is time England recognises this, and in Tuchel they have a manager doing his best to teach them. Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, and Bellingham can’t get into this team because they are too similar, and as we saw at Euro 2024, England have too many slower playmakers who, along with Harry Kane, all want to operate in the same number ten space.
England’s victories against Latvia and Wales were sharp and incisive not because the opponents were weak – years of laboured England performances tell us that – but because the players picked are getting used to each other’s movements and because there was genuine balance to the side.
Anthony Gordon, Morgan Rogers, and Elliot Anderson are energetic, urgent, and direct footballers who can run off Kane and Declan Rice. That is why they will remain ahead of Foden, Bellingham, and even Palmer in the pecking order.
It isn’t often something genuinely useful comes out of an England international break.
Tuchel is asking England supporters to relearn what Gareth Southgate taught in 2018 when he dropped Wayne Rooney and replaced him with inflatable unicorns; that to foster strong relationships, a happy camp, and fluent football you need the right kind of personality and the right harmony on the pitch too.
That invariably means leaving out big-name players. Bellingham was supposed to be the star of this team, around which everything was built, and in a way he still is. By his absence, and what it symbolises about the Tuchel era, he remains centre stage even as he watches from home.
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