Thomas Tuchel once stood on the touchline at Anfield, watching in disbelief as his self-indulgent Paris Saint-Germain players refused to put in the hard yards against Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. “Guys, what is this?” he said, but there was never going to be a reaction from individuals with too much power and not enough respect for the basic concepts of teamwork.
Intensity? Tracking back? Not for us, thanks. Too many wanted to do their own thing and it ground Tuchel down in the end. The German is a coach who wants structure, identity, sacrifice and energy. At PSG, though, he saw how individualism can bring a dressing room down. How could Tuchel make his mark when he had players who would moan if a teammate looked at them the wrong way?
And so to the question of England, celebrity and the power of the collective. It was with a good sense of timing that Steven Gerrard analysed the failures of the “egotistical losers” of the golden generation this week. Club rivalries were a problem and the English obsession with star names was a hindrance. It is not a surprise that Tuchel, unafraid to risk bruising the odd ego or two, wants to create something different as he plots how to end England men’s long wait for a trophy at next summer’s World Cup.
“We are building the best team” has been a regular refrain from Tuchel over the past week. There has been no backtracking over the omission of Jude Bellingham, Jack Grealish and Phil Foden. “The radical statement is that we don’t collect the most talented players,” Tuchel said before England’s friendly victory against Wales on Thursday. “We collect the guys who have the glue and cohesion to be the best team.”
Tuchel’s career offers pointers about his apparent power play with Bellingham. Having Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Edinson Cavani at his disposal did not make PSG stronger in the crunch Champions League games, and there were problems at Bayern Munich with certain key players. At Chelsea, though, Tuchel’s greatest triumph – winning the Champions League in 2021 – came with a counterattacking and defensively brilliant team. The key player during that run was N’Golo Kanté. Thiago Silva, a model professional, and the selfless, counterpressing Mason Mount were also vital.
Chelsea were defiant, unflinching. With England, Tuchel’s mission is to forge a brotherhood. He shrugged off questions about whether leaving out his best creative players before the Wales game was a gamble too far. He backed his calls and was rewarded when England destroyed Craig Bellamy’s side with goals from Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Bukayo Saka during a brutal first half.
We are starting to see Tuchel’s England take shape. Dynamic full-backs overlap, there is pace on the flanks (a crucial element if Harry Kane is to thrive at the World Cup) and balance is provided by Elliot Anderson’s emerging midfield partnership with Declan Rice. “We are getting there,” Tuchel said after the 3-0 win. “In Serbia it looked like club football and today it looked like club football.”
Leaving aside whether England will be able to replicate the physicality of a Premier League style in the heat expected at many of the venues in the US, Mexico and Canada, it is worth considering the role of Rogers in the position usually occupied by Bellingham. “A humble player, a physical player … a very talented player,” was Tuchel’s verdict on the 23-year-old. More talented than Bellingham, though? Obviously not. Nobody doubts Bellingham’s ability. The 22-year-old is one of the best in the world. How do you leave out a player who, with disaster fast approaching, can keep his team in a tournament with a last-minute overhead kick?
The answer lies in looking at the wider picture; in remembering that Bellingham was often playing his own game at Euro 2024. Tuchel calls him a special talent. But while he has withdrawn the infamous “repulsive” remark, he has not taken back what he said about Bellingham needing to channel his edge towards his opponents and not to intimidating teammates or referees. None of this feels accidental. Pointing to Bellingham only just returning from shoulder surgery is convenient. Tuchel has talked about players needing to accept “the hierarchy within the team”. After the Wales game he said the door is open for “top quality, top characters” to return.
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Any return will be on his terms. Bellingham can come back but if he does there will be no special treatment. It is a fascinating situation. The smart money remains on Bellingham going to the World Cup but Tuchel has created a world in which he stays at home. The challenge is balancing the pros and cons. Bellingham would undoubtedly be an asset if he accepts Tuchel’s tactical demands and does not try to win the tournament on his own.
But this is not going to be the Bellingham team. If anything this is still the Kane team. The captain reports for duty every time, fulfils his media duties without complaint and leads by example. Vincent Kompany, Kane’s manager at Bayern, talks about the forward’s work ethic off the ball. The goals are inevitable; the effort out of possession sets the standard for others to follow.
This is what Tuchel craves. He would not be drawn into imagining whether he could possibly leave Bellingham, Foden and Cole Palmer on the bench in a World Cup game. He threw the focus on to the players who are performing for him now. England have played well without Bellingham in successive fixtures. Tuchel is fashioning a team, with Rogers as an updated version of Mount. His time at Bayern and PSG showed him what happens when it is every man for himself.
