England: Tuchel names PL star ‘very close’ to call-up; reveals who Bellingham ‘cannot play’ with | OneFootball

England head coach Thomas Tuchel has named one Premier League star who is “very close” to a call-up, while he has made a fresh claim about Jude Bellingham.

The Three Lions are back in action on Thursday night as they host Serbia at Wembley in their penultimate World Cup qualifier, while they face Albania on Sunday evening.

England have already booked their place at next summer’s tournament, so Tuchel is currently looking to work out his best team.

Nico O’Reilly, Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rogers are among those to start against Serbia, while Bellingham and Foden are on the bench.

Tuchel has not been afraid to make bold decisions with his selections, and he has named an in-form Premier League star who is in line for a call-up in the coming months.

“We have just one more camp…so we are running out of matches to try things,” Tuchel said when he asked whether players are running out of time to impress him.

“But every player has a chance. There is always a chance.”

On how close Brighton star Danny Welbeck was to being named in the squad, Tuchel responded: “He is very close. Do I really need to see this in November? I feel I know what he can give us.”

Tuchel has also explained why he thinks Bellingham, Foden and Harry Kane “cannot play” in the same team.

“At the moment, if we keep the structure, they cannot play,” Tuchel said.

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“At the moment, we play with a No 6, a No 8, a No 10 and a No 9.

“There is a lot of congruence, especially in the No 10 position, if you think about Phil can play there, you think about Jude, you think about Morgan Rogers, who played fantastic for us in this position. You have Cole Palmer, you have Morgan Gibbs-White, so there is a lot of players and there is the chance that we will not take everyone.

“Not because we don’t like [them], not because they don’t individually deserve it, but we will always do what’s best for the team.

“We will always do what’s best for winning, we will always do what’s best for balance and 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.”

Tuchel has named a strong XI for the match against Serbia, with the head coach insisting that he wants to maintain their “momentum”.

“The fact we’ve already qualified shouldn’t hold us back when it comes to putting on a strong performance,” Tuchel said in his pre-match programme notes for the Serbia match.

“One of our strengths at the moment is the intensity in our play and our ability and desire to put the effort in.

“We have two qualifying matches left and we want to win both of them. We want to continue our run and build on our momentum.”