Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that he will “split” his latest England squad and allow 11 players to arrive to the camp late in order to offer some of his leading stars a “break” before the business end of the club season.
Tuchel explained that captain Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Elliott Anderson, Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn and Dean Henderson will miss England’s first friendly against Uruguay next Friday and will only join his squad ahead of the Japan game.
“These guys have played 3,500 minutes, some 4,000 minutes [this season],” Tuchel said. “More important than the pure number of minutes is some of these guys have played more minutes than the whole of last season.
“All of these players have contributed in September, October and November. They have credit with me. To give them a break mentally and physically, we will benefit from it.”
It bodes well for all 11 players that they will be on Tuchel’s plane for the World Cup, with the England manager taking a “unique” approach to the upcoming international break by announcing an expanded squad of 35 and dividing the camp into two parts.
“The reality of the March camp is that players, our players are in a crucial moment in the club football season,” Tuchel said. “They fight for titles. They fight a relegation battle. They are involved in knockout matches, in cup matches, so it is a crucial moment of the season, a very stressful moment of the season for them.
“But it is also our last camp [before the World Cup], the last opportunity to impress, the last opportunity for players to compete for their ticket. So it is a bit of a mix of motives.”
Tuchel also confirmed that he take a different approach to the No 10 position, which is the most competitive area for selection. He said Cole Palmer and Phil Foden will be competing for minutes in the Uruguay game, with Rogers, Jude Bellingham and Eberechi Eze given the opportunity for the Japan friendly three days later.
“I think we need clarity around every position,” Tuchel said. “I think it will be very unlikely that we bring three, four, five players for one position into camp or into the World Cup. I think this will just confuse everyone.
“Of course, if you have the choice between world-class players in the No 10 position, at some point we will have to make tough calls, but now it's it's about camp.
“In the first part of the camp it's Cole Palmer and Phil Foden. In the second part of the camp, it will be then Jude, Morgan and Eze, who is always in the mix for any for any position in the No 10 and on the wing.
“The competition is on, but we will also share it in bites that we have two players for one game competing. Then it's on the players to show their quality. Then it's on me to take a decision.”
Bellingham has not played for Real Madrid since February after suffering a hamstring injury and Tuchel has confirmed that England will be “very careful to not take any risks” with the midfielder. “The best case scenario is he gets some minutes against Japan”, Tuchel said.
“I wanted Jude to be in camp, Jude wanted to be in camp and Real Madrid are happy for him to be in camp. We can provide team training for him, with Real on international break. All boxes are ticked,” Tuchel said.
“It's important to get expectations right - we will continue his progress and integration into team training. We will not take any risk regarding risk of re-injury. It's rare for him to have a muscle injury so we will be very careful.”
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