Only a month has passed since England last convened for World Cup qualifying duty and yet, already, Thomas Tuchel could be forgiven for looking back fondly on a simpler time.
For all the debate surrounding Tuchel’s decision to keep faith with the players involved in his September squad, an approach that meant omitting Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden, the policy was not really difficult to justify.
When the German made his selections for the September games against Andorra and Serbia, Bellingham was still working his way back to fitness after undergoing shoulder surgery over the summer. Foden, meanwhile, was nursing an ankle injury and had just 15 minutes of club football under his belt. Neither man was ready to play, and in their absence England picked up two wins – including a 5-0 victory in Belgrade that marked the finest performance of Tuchel’s tenure – to all but secure qualification for next summer’s finals.
When the German said he would stick with the same players the following month, it was hard to argue – even if some questioned the wisdom of overlooking two of England’s most feted creative talents. If anything, Tuchel’s stance was refreshing. Here was a manager prepared to omit big names for the greater good. The contrast with the days when Sven-Göran Eriksson and Fabio Capello tried to shoehorn Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard into the same midfield was pointed.
With Bellingham and Foden both now fit and in form, however, Tuchel faces an obvious dilemma. England have a surfeit of No 10s. For the past two camps, Morgan Rogers has excelled in the role. Yet it is also the most natural position for Bellingham and Foden, and Tuchel is understandably wary of upsetting the balance of a team that has won all six qualifying games to date without conceding a goal. The German’s insistence that the pair cannot both feature alongside Harry Kane in his favoured 4-2-3-1 system has created no shortage of headlines.
What did Thomas Tuchel say about Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Harry being unable to play together?
“At the moment, if we keep the structure, they cannot play [together],” Tuchel said in advance of Thursday’s World Cup qualifier against Serbia at Wembley “They can, but not in the structure, not for the balance that we developed and not [in] the structure that comes also with wingers who are like specialists in their positions.
“We play at the moment with a six, eight, a 10 and a nine. Especially in the No 10 position, if you think about Phil [Foden] who could play there, if you think about Jude [Bellingham], you think about Morgan Rogers, who played fantastic for us in this position.
“You have Cole Palmer, you have Morgan Gibbs-White, so there’s a lot of players, and there’s the chance that we will not take everyone. Not because we don’t like it, not because they don’t individually deserve it, but [because] we will always do what’s best for the team, for winning, for balance.
“We will try to keep the clarity, even if it means that we have to take tough decisions. We take tough decisions in any camp, and this will not change when we go to a tournament.”
Phil Foden and the battle for England’s No 10 shirt
At the heart of the problem is where to play Foden. As things stand, England’s No 10 slot belongs to Rogers, from whom Bellingham, one of the world’s best in that role, will attempt to wrest back the shirt. Foden, back in the reckoning but far from out of the woods, is at best the third man.
But if the race for a starting berth behind Kane is, for now at least, essentially between Rogers and Bellingham (and despite Tuchel’s well-documented concerns about the latter’s attitude, it is still hard to imagine the Real Madrid man being left behind), where does that leave Foden?
His versatility is such that he could play almost anywhere across midfield or attack. That being the case, an obvious solution would be to shunt Foden out to the flanks. Tuchel, though, is adamant the City man must play through the middle.
“I don’t see him as a winger at the moment and maybe not any more,” he said last week. “He should have a central role. I think that brings out his strengths the most. We talked about this already with him.
“He will contribute as a nine-and-a-half, ten-and-a-half-ish position, very fluid. But in the middle of the pitch, to be close to the box and be able to assist and score.”
If that raises the intriguing possibility of Foden deputising for Kane as a false nine, it also implies Tuchel is in earnest when he suggests Kane, Bellingham and Foden can’t operate in tandem.
England’s progress to the final of Euro 2024, where the trio started all seven matches, might suggest otherwise. But while Kane, who would score goals in virtually any circumstances, largely delivered consistent performances throughout the tournament, neither Bellingham nor Foden reached the heights of which they are capable.
That was most obviously apparent in the final against Spain, where Gareth Southgate moved Bellingham wide to accommodate Foden through the middle and was rewarded with peripheral performances from both, leaving Kane isolated. In short, Tuchel probably has a point.
Where else could Phil Foden play for England if not at No 10?
With that in mind, it was intriguing that Tuchel also hinted at the possibility of Foden being accommodated centrally in a No 8 role.
Yet it is hard to see how that could be anything other than detrimental to the balance of the team, which the German has said remains paramount. To accommodate Foden in central midfield would mean Elliot Anderson, who has performed superbly in the No 6 role, dropping to the bench, with Declan Rice – who is undroppable – assuming his midfield partner’s defensive responsibilities.
At a time when Rice has been liberated for both club and country by the presence of a defensively-disciplined midfield partner alongside him – for Elliot with England, read Martín Zubimendi with Arsenal – that would seem a backward step both literally and creatively. The midfielder has already racked up three goals and five assists this season. To stifle his growing influence in advanced positions by recasting him as a No 6 would seem a retrograde step.
This is why Tuchel earns the big bucks, of course. Dealing with such problems is part and parcel of life as an international manager. Bot how he chooses to utilise Foden – a conundrum that will deepen further when Palmer returns from injury, and if Gibbs-White plays his way back into contention – could nonetheless have a defining influence on Tuchel’s England tenure.
