Foden or Palmer out of World Cup? Crunch time approaches for the F365 England Ladder | OneFootball

A classic last-international-break-before-a-tournament effort from England, with a drab showing against Uruguay and Japan dampening World Cup expectations and inviting prognostications of doom and gloom that will last until England’s next win, at which point the mass over-reaction will swing entirely the other way.

It is the history of the England.

No getting around it, though. That was quite sh*t from England, with a lot of fringe players doing little for their own chances and merely confirming that England will need to be at full strength or pretty damn close if six decades of hurt are to end this summer.

Tuchel called up vast numbers of players across a split-squad camp, and we’re really not sure anyone on the fringes pushed their case particularly compellingly.

The numbers in brackets refer to February’s cheeky Bonus Ladder, one flamboyantly compiled in the absence of any actual international football and thus containing all manner of hunches.

A mixed bag of hunches, it’s fair to say. We did okay with Kobbie Mainoo, Harry Maguire and Lewis Hall, but not so much with Luke Shaw and Conor Gallagher. We’re giving ourselves a passing grade for that effort, but judge for yourselves here before getting stuck into a now more substantive actual-football-has-happened Ladder.

1) Harry Kane (1)

Zero goals and indeed zero minutes for Kane in this break. What a despicable fraud. Yet even a man with 78 international goals for his country can still benefit from the age-old wisdom that your very best work is always done outside rather than inside the team.

We knew Kane was very important to England, but it was still alarming to be reminded just how important he remains. He’s 32 and there remains no sign whatsoever of a worthy successor among any of the nines fake or actual England have deployed in recent years.

2) Declan Rice (2)

As above, really. Apart from the bits about goals and number nines. An absolute inked-in member of the starting XI who, despite the presence of many pretenders, is almost impossible to replace.

Without wishing to inadvertently open yet another Premier League culture war front, it was also noticeable how much England missed both Rice and Saka at set-piece time against both Uruguay and Japan.

You can have all the clever/sh*thouse set-piece plans you want (delete as applicable) but if the delivery isn’t there then it’s all for nowt.

3) Jordan Pickford (3)

Conceded a first goal in an England shirt since October 2024 but it would be fair to say the problems with that goal all occurred in front of rather than in any way because of England’s unquestioned, unchallenged and perhaps still underrated and underappreciated No. 1.

4) Elliot Anderson (6)

Not many of England’s key players who were actually involved in these games could be said to have enhanced their chances, but Anderson did. Sat out the Uruguay game before linking up with the squad for Japan, where he was very much his usual self which was very much enough to stand out as one of the least concerning elements of England’s effort.

A double boost in that nobody else from the outside really took the chance to put pressure on a man who in the space of seven months and a handful of caps has gone from squad hopeful to certain starter alongside Rice in the England engine room.

This window did have potential for some doubt to creep into that scenario – especially with the rejuvenated Kobbie Mainoo back in the frame – but it’s now surely only injury that could keep Anderson out of the XI that takes on Croatia in Dallas 77 days from now.

5) Marc Guehi (7)

England’s first-choice centre-back and really that was already true before he got his Big Club Move that rightly or wrongly it did kind of feel was needed to properly cement that status.

We’re pretty sure he’s in the inked-in starting gang now. It’s a good gang to be in.

6) Bukayo Saka (5)

A man clearly in need of the rest the interlull and a minor injury have afforded him. We’re pretty certain he would have been playing had playing been entirely necessary. It was not entirely necessary.

Remains a squad certainty, of course, but perhaps not quite so inked-in to the starting XI as he was even a couple of months ago. Mikel Arteta and Thomas Tuchel will both desperately hope this short rest period sees the return of Saka at anything approaching his very best.

7) Jude Bellingham (9)

The biggest absentee winner of the whole camp? Probably. The others to benefit from not playing – your Kanes, your Rices – were already inked-in certainties anyway. That was no longer true for Bellingham, who was nevertheless able to sit back and watch as assorted players did various shades of nothing in myriad variations of the No. 10 position that still feels like Bellingham’s natural home on England duty.

In March even more than any other window, with its tendency towards soporific friendlies awkwardly shoehorned into the busiest time for club schedules around Europe, there really can be so much more benefit to not playing than playing for certain sorts. Bellingham demonstrated it perfectly.

8) Reece James (4)

Injured again, and at a truly infuriating time for club and country. Hamstrings are awkward buggers at the best of times and these are very much not the best of times for a man who, when fit, is perhaps the best right-back to be found anywhere as well as a capable defensive midfielder.

You’d still imagine Tuchel – who knows all about James’ qualities and injuries – will still want to grasp any opportunity to involve him if he possibly can. But with reports now suggesting James might even be struggling to get back on the pitch before the end of the season it might end up requiring a gamble. It’s the sort of thing a 26-man squad does enable, but do you take that risk with a right-back or someone more potentially game-breaking?

9) Ezri Konsa (8)

In February’s cheeky bonus ladder we said:

It was and it will be. We’re just about fine with it, we think.

10) Anthony Gordon (10)

It was clear that Tuchel wanted to get just about as close to his preferred XI as circumstances would allow against Japan. The experimental nature of the frontline and other deviations from that preferred XI did all appear to be attempts to make the best of the cards Tuchel had been dealt.

With that we can still say with fair confidence that what has looked to be the case for most of Tuchel’s reign is still the case. Gordon is his starter on the left side of the attack, with Marcus Rashford and others in reserve.

Could have done with a more compelling performance to really hammer it home, but there were some nice moments in there, some good interplay with Nico O’Reilly, and plenty of mitigation in the fair summary that the problems present in England’s fluid front four were mainly to be found in the other more fluid elements of it.

11) Nico O’Reilly (11)

Does still represent a gamble, and against Japan showed the good and bad sides of that gamble. He really is a fine technician and a lovely footballer to watch. There were plenty of neat passing movements in which he got himself involved with England’s attackers. There was a delicious cross that a real rather than fake nine in Phil Foden might have made rather more of.

Then in his final 15 minutes on the pitch at the start of the second half he was suddenly targeted and troubled by Japan’s counter-attacks. His positioning and choices in those moments weren’t the best, and there are better defenders than him vying for the position.

But do any of them offer a better overall package than O’Reilly? We might lean tentatively towards a yes for a fit-again Lewis Hall – who was full of energy in a night lacking it when he came on at Wembley – but we suspect Tuchel still leans towards the man he has now started on each of the last three occasions when he’s picked his strongest available team.

12) Morgan Rogers (12)

Struggled when pushed out to the right to accommodate England’s pair of very false nines against Japan, but more, well, central to proceedings when restored to the middle after the inevitable on-the-hour Raft Of Substitutions.

Not sure we learned much we didn’t already know: Rogers is a very good No. 10 but not really a right winger. Doesn’t feel like his squad place is in any kind of danger and nor should it be, but does feel, tremendously and usefully capable as he is, like it might be an act of foolishness to start him over actual Jude Bellingham in an actual World Cup.

13) Jordan Henderson (14)

His role within the squad is a clear and defined one that isn’t going to change between now and the summer.

14) Dean Henderson (13)

Didn’t get the start against Uruguay, with James Trafford preferred. But he still had the 13 shirt for this get together and we’re sticking to our tried-and-trusted rules when it comes to the order of back-up goalkeepers for the England ladder that 13 beats 22 or 23 or whatever.

That, plus if you imagine a scenario in North America this summer where Pickford has got himself sent off or injured then, after allowing yourself a small, manly cry, it is definitely Henderson you picture coming on, isn’t it? It just makes sense.

15) Marcus Rashford (16)

Starting against Uruguay and coming off the bench against Japan does rather, given the relative weight Tuchel himself clearly placed upon those two low-energy friendlies, suggest that Rashford remains precisely where he was. In the squad, but not the starting XI.

We have neither the inclination nor energy to quibble with either element of this situation. ‘Sfine.

16) Ben White (RE)

A huge re-entry for a player whose absence from recent Ladders has never been about ability beyond the all-important availability. Achieved the rare feat against Uruguay of scoring a goal that instead of silencing the boo boys made them if anything even louder and was then slightly unlucky to concede one of those penalties that never used to be penalties back when football was football and men were men.

Was involved in a good deal of what little decent attacking football England could muster against Japan, where the timing of his overlapping runs was notably on-point even if the final ball that followed couldn’t always match it.

But what we do know now at least is that he’s right back in the, er, right-back conversation and with Reece James under yet another injury cloud and Tuchel’s stance on Trent Alexander-Arnold pretty clear, he rockets back into the ladder and all the way up to a squad place for now.

17) Lewis Hall (19)

We kind of guessed a bit – we’d like to think in an educated fashion, but hmm – in the Bonus February Ladder that Hall’s return from injury to pretty much ever-present status as Newcastle’s left-back would be enough to make him at the very least England’s second left-back this summer, and his two appearances off the bench in this break have done him no harm and given us no real reason to think we f*cked that guess.

18) Dan Burn (18)

Does increasingly look like Burn and Harry Maguire might be England’s back-up centre-backs in North America with added special-play duties as trialled last night of coming on in the closing minutes of a game going awry to try and wreak pure unfiltered chaos from set-pieces. All Arsenal, aren’t we?

19) Kobbie Mainoo (25)

Wasn’t great against Japan but has been great for Manchester United. What seems significant to us is that, unlike the more unorthodox Wharton, it feels like he’s been great for Manchester United in quite a Tuchelish kind of way.

It’s pretty clear that Rice and Anderson will be England’s starting midfield barring injury or illness, but what the enormously welcome re-emergence of Mainoo under Michael Carrick does is offer a player who can fairly seamlessly slot in for either.

He has the calmness of Anderson and the range – if not yet quite the top notes – of Rice. We’re not sure any of the other midfield options can really say that.

We remain massive, unapologetic Adam Wharton fans here, but there is an undeniable sense that you have to make him much more of a centrepiece of your whole strategy to get the best out of him and make it truly worthwhile. At this point, with it being very clear Wharton is not going to be Plan A, is he worth the time and effort required to make him a viable Plan B?

Feels like in Tuchel’s head the more straightforward plug-and-play appeal of Mainoo might win out in the battle of England’s young central midfielders.

20) Harry Maguire (27)

Fit, available, fresh, vastly experienced and probably right now playing as well as he ever has.

With England’s full-strength side one that is clearly going to make unapologetic use of the set-piece delivery of Rice and Saka, it’s starting to look like you need to find reasons not to take Maguire rather than reasons to include the big bugger. And why would you do that?

Apart from the obvious, this is not an England squad blessed with goals. It’s very possible – probable, even – that among those who head to the USA in the summer only Kane, Rashford and Saka will have scored more than Maguire’s seven international goals.

Maguire planting his massive irresistible force of a head on a 90th-minute corner to win a quarter-final against Brazil is going to hit like crack.

21) James Trafford (24)

We’re not quite ready to commit to the idea that his debut against Uruguay makes him England’s second-choice keeper but we are willing to go as far as saying it cements his position in third.

22) John Stones (15)

Of all the players to pull out through injury over the last week or so, you get the sense that this is the one that actually p*ssed Tuchel off. Not because he sensed any sharp practice, but the opposite. This was a player desperate to be involved and who Tuchel desperately wanted to involve.

Stones’ lack of availability this season but high place in Tuchel’s esteem makes him desperately hard to place in the Ladder. Not the worst thing about his injury problems, sure, but annoying for us. We still wouldn’t be remotely surprised to see him picked. We wouldn’t even rule out a Maguire-Stones getting-the-band-back-together combo at some point this summer.

Tuchel clearly wants to pick him, but it’s increasingly unclear whether he’ll be able to. As the man himself put it:

“He is a key player for us as a starter or as a substitute, as a part of the team, because of his quality, but also because of his mentality and the personality, how he is as a character.

“He is a big part in my plans still. Like everyone, he has to be fit.”

There, verily, is the rub. Guehi and Konsa appear to be squad certainties, and right now you’d have to say Burn and Maguire are ahead of Stones purely because availability is and always will be the best ability. Would Tuchel go to five centre-backs to include Stones? Kind of think he might, and fiddle some extra space by having Konsa also act as right-back cover. But that only adds to the stress of it all because of Reece James.

Essentially, England have two excellent defenders who look like being injury gambles to include. So does Tuchel go with one, both, or neither?

Notice how this is framed as a question to hide the fact we have no idea as to what the answer is, or even what it should be.

23) Cole Palmer (17)

Could he really have played his way out of the squad with that performance against Japan? Hugely disappointing if so, but really he can have few complaints. Insufficient trees have been pulled up at Chelsea this season for Palmer to be said to have hammered the door down and demanded inclusion and he was honking at Wembley on Tuesday night.

Being uninspired and uninspiring in an unfamiliar and unhelpful dual-false-nine role with Phil Foden wouldn’t have been too disastrous were it not for the fact Palmer was also at fault twice for Japan’s goal.

And again, being dispossessed in midfield by Kaoru Mitoma could be filed under ‘disappointing but it happens’.

The failure to track Mitoma’s run in the counter-attack, eventually trailing back into frame some six or seven yards behind Mitoma as he enjoyed a complete lack of attention in the England area to score was a really bad look in a game where Palmer did absolutely nothing to catch the eye in a more positive manner.

Unless he can produce a storming end to the season with Chelsea, he really can have few complaints if he finds himself outside Tuchel’s squad come the summer, and that feels like a significant and avoidable shame for a player with the proven potential to bust games open.

24) Adam Wharton (22)

Here’s what we said in February.

We still think he has the edge on Conor Gallagher, if that’s any consolation.

25) Jarrod Bowen (26)

Did he do much right this break? No. Did he conspicuously sh*t the bed? Also no. Therefore it is, in the round, a good interlull for the West Ham man.

26) Dominic Solanke (32)

Given a pretty significant chance to stake his claim across the two games and didn’t quite grasp it. Not entirely his fault, because it’s not like he was getting silver service and passed it all up.

But he might well be the man in the right place at the right time. One good and genuine conclusion from a pretty miserable night for England against Japan is that they absolutely do need an Actual Nine as back-up to Kane. They must not and surely after that Foden-Palmer experiment will not go in with only fudge-it options.

And Solanke, despite having scored not one single goal for England, might now be the man in possession of the Kane Understudy role after getting plenty of game-time this week.

At the very least, the battle between him, Ollie Watkins, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and perhaps even an Ivan Toney has bunched up again when for much of the time it has felt like Watkins’ spot to lose.

27) Phil Foden (21)

Is it just time to reluctantly accept there isn’t a position in the England team that works for Foden and all move on? We feel we can at least confidently rule out the idea of a fudge that gets him on the plane as Kane’s back-up. A false nine is one thing, but Foden was more of a fictional nine against Japan. A unicorn nine. But not in a good or exciting way, in a ‘this doesn’t actually exist, stop wasting time on it’ way.

Ultimately, and this feels like a collective rather than personal failure, Foden just isn’t among England’s most effective attacking players and really never has been, even when absolutely smashing it for City.

28) Eberechi Eze (29)

Tuchel has admitted the mass withdrawal of Arsenal players from assorted international camps over the last 10 days ‘looks a bit suspicious’ but stressed he had no doubts about the four who left his squad.

That feels like it’s most significant for Eze. Rice and Saka are safely in the World Cup squad anyway, that’s not in doubt no matter how tenuous their injury absences may or may not be. Madueke literally hobbled out of the first game of this break with a very obviously real injury, so while it’s a huge frustration for him and his manager not to see what he might have done with the opportunity the integrity isn’t in doubt.

That leaves Eze, who left before a ball was kicked and isn’t in any way certain of a place in the final squad.

The fact Tuchel accepted his reasons for withdrawing and the fact most England attackers who did play were strikingly sh*t makes it feel like actually not a bad week for Eze overall. Bit of rest, get the ol’ feet up and, if anything, move closer rather than further from World Cup selection.

Eze has clearly struggled for consistency in his first season at Arsenal, but nobody doubts the height of the ceiling or his ability to suddenly go on a bit of a tear-up formwise. If we were picking the squad, we would very much like Eze’s X-factor could-be-sh*t-might-be-spectacular stylings as an option over ‘safer’ options. But we’re not picking the squad.

29) Tino Livramento (23)

Probably third-choice right-back now that Ben White is back on the scene, Reece James’ return to the familiar sights of the treatment room gives Livramento a live chance.

30) Trevoh Chalobah (39)

Tuchel is a confirmed fan and before this international break did suggest that the currently injured Chelsea regular was ahead of Maguire in the pecking order. Not really Chalobah’s fault, but a combination of factors make that seem unlikely now when it comes to tournament selection.

We must, though, accept that this is a player whose lack of England minutes mean we might be guilty of under-rating just how highly Tuchel thinks of him. It was notable that he through him into that list of names in that Maguire conversation alongside far more established sorts like Guehi, Konsa and Stones.

31) Djed Spence (31)

The good news is that we’re now pretty confident he’s the third-choice left-back. The bad news is that we’re now pretty confident Tuchel will take only two of them.

Spence’s route to the squad this summer doesn’t appear entirely closed off, though. An injury to either O’Reilly or Hall would probably do it, but there is also the fact that Spence can operate on either flank.

Given the Reece James situation, and Tuchel’s obvious and correct desire to get him in the squad by any possible means, it might not be the worst thing for a fringe player in another position to have ‘capable right-back’ on the CV.

32) Noni Madueke (28)

A proper real injury among Arsenal’s vast contingent of what our lawyers have asked we refer to as also being very real and proper injuries over the last fortnight. Rotten luck for the club at this busy time, but notably and specifically rotten for Madueke who feels like one of the players most overtly on the bubble right now and whose summer plans could absolutely go either way.

At least nobody really made a compelling case in his injury-enforced absence after hobbling off against Uruguay, but that feels like cold comfort right now.

33) Ollie Watkins (20)

At least nobody else made the Kane back-up position their own, but having spent most of the last few years looking the clear front-runner in that particular race for second place he really is now just another member of a largely uninspiring pack. Hard now, really, to state any clear preference for him or Solanke or Calvert-Lewin or anyone else other than to make the obvious yet vital point that absolutely none of them are now or ever will be Harry Kane.

34) Dominic Calvert-Lewin (40)

Big couple of months coming up for Calvert-Lewin in every conceivable way. Knows he is in contention at the very, very least and – just as importantly – knows nobody else has nailed down the Kane plus one spot that even more clearly than before we now know absolutely must be filled with an inevitably inferior but at least halfway positionally comparable alternative.

35) Jarell Quansah (35)

Versatility a definite plus but hard to see how he’d be in an injury-free 26-manner right now.

36) Fikayo Tomori (RE)

Back in the squad and back on the Ladder. Welcome back.

37) Aaron Ramsdale (RE)

Has for now displaced Nick Pope at club level and therefore we assume also at international level. As with Pope, though, that still feels very much puts him fourth rather than the third spot required.

38) Harvey Barnes (RE)

A second cap five-and-a-half years after his first, in a friendly against Wales in October 2020. But a quick look at the attacking names currently outside the 26 tells you what a tall order Barnes faces to parlay his re-entry to the 50 into an actual World Cup spot.

39) James Garner (NE)

Deserved call-up after a fine season with Everton, but hard to see how he’s ahead of any of the central-midfield options still above him in this list. And Tuchel surely won’t look this far down in terms of numbers when selecting options for two starting positions. Rice, Anderson, Henderson, Mainoo and Wharton would appear to cover all bases stylistically and numerically.

40) Morgan Gibbs-White (37)

Probably unlucky, but surely had to be in this enlarged squad to have a chance.