Jones Knows Notebook: Tuchel has told us who's on the plane so back it at 13/5 | OneFootball

Has Tuchel told us who's on the plane?

Thomas Tuchel's recent squad selection for the upcoming friendlies was as extraordinary as a squad selection for a non-competitive set of games can be.

By confirming that 11 members of his experimental 35-man squad will be rested for the first friendly of the international break against Uruguay, Tuchel may have told the world who is already on the plane.

This is excellent news for us punters. Of course, Betfair offer "To Make England World Cup 2026 Finals" markets.

Tuchel confirmed that Dean Henderson, Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Nico O'Reilly, Elliot Anderson, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka will be given a few days' break before joining the camp on Friday.

Jordan Pickford and Jude Bellingham are deemed to be in the same category, along with the injured Reece James, but will join the camp for the first game due to the fact they have played fewer minutes.

Explaining the squad selection, Tuchel said: "We decided to divide it into two camps, almost. We have a camp where we bring players in who we haven't seen, who haven't played so much to open up the competition for plane tickets to the US.

"From Friday/Saturday, a group will come into camp who get a rest before. We will go with a new group of players into the match against Japan."

Tuchel will be able to name 26 players for the upcoming tournament and this is obviously how winners and losers will be settled for the "To Make England World Cup 2026 Finals" markets.

But what is interesting from a punting perspective here is that Betfair are offering a the "Bet Builder" function for these markets. This means we can combine different selections which in turn increases the odds being offered up.

So, seeing as Tuchel has dropped a massive hint to the world about who is on the plane, the obvious play is to include those players in a monster Bet Builder to try and construct a winner that we can collect in May.

Back 13-fold Bet Builder to grab the value

This is a first for me. Tipping up a 13-fold accumulator. But value is value.

Adding Henderson, Burn, Guehi, Konsa, O'Reilly, Anderson, Rice, Rogers, Gordon, Kane, Saka, Pickford and Bellingham to the Bet Builder brings out a 13/5 shot with the Betfair Sportsbook.

I've decided to leave out Reece James from the equation due to his problematic injury record.

And this is the key point isn't it? This 13-fold Bet Builder is reliant upon all 13 players staying fit as from what we know, Tuchel has almost confirmed their spot on the plane this summer. The odds we're playing here imply a 31 per cent chance of all 13 players being fit come the summer.

I think that underplays the true probability based on the overall injury record of each player over the last three seasons. There is a robustness to players at the top level these days despite the workload and there are only seven Premier League games left of the current season.

There aren't many more hurdles to overcome, albeit a few of those on that list, like Kane and Saka, will be going deep into cup competitions so they could be having to negotiate potentially another seven encounters.

That being said, my instincts are telling me the chances of all those 13 players being fit to be selected in May, are more likely than that 31 per cent implied.

Any edge on the market, no matter how niche, is worth respecting and backing. This is another occasion.