Thomas Tuchel challenges England to build on five-star display against Serbia | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel challenged England’s players to build on their five-star display in Serbia after an impressive September camp increased competition for a World Cup spot.

Tuesday’s fantastic 5-0 win in Belgrade put the Euro 2024 runners-up on the cusp of qualification for next summer’s finals, having gone seven points clear of second-placed Albania with three matches to go.

England are among the favourites for World Cup glory and finally showed what they were capable of under Tuchel, who is using his limited time with the group as best he can to give them a shot at silverware next summer.

There are only three camps until he makes his World Cup selection and the German coach was delighted with his players’ efforts in September, from training and the positive group environment to beating Andorra 2-0 in Birmingham and thrashing Serbia in Belgrade.

But as impressed as he was, there are plenty vying for spot in Tuchel’s set-up.

Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, John Stones and Adam Wharton were among those absent through injury, while Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden, Harry Maguire and Jack Grealish were overlooked.

“The message is first of all to us and to this group, what this group did,” England boss Tuchel said. “I told you that I learned that this is international football.

“You can have your ideas whom you want to nominate but then comes the last weekend and players are out and players are injured, and players feel something and then you have to make hard decisions on some positions. So, it is also me to take these decisions.

“We took the group that was available and we took the group that we made available for us because we thought it’s the right thing to do, to start in this season with this group.

“They proved the point in camp every day and they made it visible with this result and this performance to our fans and that’s what counts.

“This is the message and now we try to build on that of course. But there can be changes again, maybe we need to be forced to have changes again.

“I just told the group if I had the possibility to make 10 changes, I would have made 10 substitutions today because everyone deserved to play and I hope we can keep this going.”

Tuchel, as he did against Andorra, made five substitutions in Serbia, where Ollie Watkins won a late penalty converted by fellow introduction Marcus Rashford.

Harry Kane opened the scored at the partially-closed Rajko Mitic Stadium, before Noni Madueke, Ezri Konsa and Marc Guehi opened their international accounts on a memorable night that saw midfielder Elliot Anderson star once again.

Having been named man of the match on his debut against minnows Andorra, the 22-year-old was thrown in at the deep in and Belgrade and picked up the accolade for the second time in four days.

Asked if the Nottingham Forest midfielder – who starred for England in this summer’s Under-21 Euros triumph – was the most important find of this camp, Tuchel said: “I struggle to put these labels on the players.

“It doesn’t help if someone is the ‘most important’ and the ‘most important’ person who is missing, and (then it’s a question of) who’s playing, in the ranking. I simply don’t do this.

“Elliot deserved to be with us because he did excellent for his club and for the under-21s. That was very impressive.

“When I saw him performing in the under-21s final, I had the idea that maybe he can be a number six and we will maybe play into his strengths.

“He was excellent in camp, like everyone else. The group made it as easy as possible for him, but he did all the effort that is needed and he had two excellent performances.

“So, now it’s on him to keep it going and to keep also the lightness with him and the freedom with him that he needs for his game.