The Lowdown on Thomas Tuchel: Everything you need to know about England's new manager | OneFootball

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Thomas Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea, but can he lead England to World Cup glory?

Thomas Tuchel will be the new England manager, with victory at the 2026 World Cup his sole agenda. We've asked German football expert and Betfair tipster Kevin Hatchard to do a deep dive into the former Chelsea manager's history, and assess whether he can led the Three Lions to global glory.

Tuchel hire is a bold departure for the FA

At a time when pathways and promoting from within are in fashion, with Luis de la Fuente conquering all with Spain after his work with the nation's youth teams, the Football Association have decided to switch to "win now" mode. Hiring Thomas Tuchel is a statement - England are getting a Champions League winner who is seen as one of the great tactical minds in the sport, and the FA are hoping he can succeed where previous foreign hires Fabio Capello and Sven-Goran Eriksson ultimately failed.

It should of course be borne in mind that Tuchel's predecessor Gareth Southgate was demonstrably England's most effective manager since Sir Alf Ramsey. Leading the Three Lions to back-to-back European Championship finals deserves immense respect, and he did it with dignity and intelligence. The rather chaotic approach to media duties of his interim replacement Lee Carsley has only served to highlight what a safe pair of hands Southgate was.

Tuchel should have no problems on that score. He showed at Chelsea that he could speak deftly about wider issues when the club was in the midst of a takeover, and his political skills were required when he was in charge of huge and complex institutions like PSG and Bayern Munich. He'll relish the scale of the task, and he'll pull no punches.

Intensity and innovation have always been Tuchel's hallmarks

Like many excellent coaches, Tuchel's playing career was cruelly cut short by injury at the age of 25, although there had been little indication that he would make it as a player at the highest level. The influential Ralf Rangnick, who has touched the lives of so many elite operators in football, pushed the cerebral Tuchel towards coaching. Rangnick had coached Tuchel at Ulm, and had seen a spark.

Tuchel was hired by Rangnick to be an assistant youth coach at Stuttgart. He was part of the coaching team that won the Under-19 title, but his abrasive nature saw him part ways with VfB. After a spell at Augsburg - where he helped launch the coaching career of Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann - Tuchel won another Under-19 title with Mainz.

Mainz had always been seen as a risk-taking club, and their sporting director Christian Heidel had been the one who had convinced Jürgen Klopp to switch from being a player to a coach. Heidel pulled another rabbit out of the hat when he promoted Tuchel to the senior team to replace the sacked Jorn Andersen in 2009.

Tuchel's obsessive attention to detail had caught Heidel's eye - he had seen him test the height of the grass and sniff the pitch ahead of a pre-season game in Austria against Olympiakos, and he had asked Heidel if he could hire the groundsman. Heidel described Tuchel as a "footballaholic" and someone who "thinks about the game 24-7".

In his first Bundesliga job, Tuchel quickly developed a reputation for doing things differently. He would routinely make a raft of changes to his starting XI in a bid to nullify the threats of the more talented opposition. In training he would make players hold tennis balls so they weren't tempted to grab the shirts of their opponents, he would have the training pitch cut into different shapes to test his players, and his overarching idea was to make training stressful so that matches would seem easy by comparison.

The methods worked. Mainz won at Bayern in Tuchel's second season, part of a seven-match winning run to start the campaign. They finished fifth, qualifying for the Europa League, which would prove to be the high point of his five years in charge. In 2014, Tuchel surprisingly went on a sabbatical, stating he had taken Mainz as far as he could. Some players were sad to lose him, but others were relieved, having been worn down by his intensity.

Dortmund spell showed best and worst of Tuchel

When Borussia Dortmund chose Tuchel as Jürgen Klopp's replacement in 2015, they hoped he would be able to bridge the gap between BVB and Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich. During Tuchel's sabbatical, he had met the Catalan schemer for dinner at the famed Schumann's bar in Munich. Bayern's technical director Michael Reschke was at the meeting of minds, and he described it as being like a debate between "Socrates and Plato", as the two coaches discussed tactical minutiae for six hours.

Tuchel pushed Guardiola hard in the Bayern boss's final season in Munich, but eventually Bayern finished ten points clear at the top. Dortmund scored a club record 82 league goals and finished with 78 points, which would have won the league title in all but three of the previous 52 seasons.

The summer departures of Mats Hummels, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ilkay Gundogan had upset Tuchel, and although Dortmund won the DFB Pokal in his second season, relationships had soured. Things were brought to a head by the 2017 bomb attack on the Dortmund team bus, as the players made their way to a Champions League game against Monaco. In the aftermath, Tuchel clashed with CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke about the swift rescheduling of the match.

Watzke insisted that Tuchel had been successful in his two years, but admitted it was just too wearing to deal with him, and Tuchel was released. The decision underlined the great contradiction that defines Tuchel - the relentless drive and burning desire to get everything right is his greatest strength, but when players and executives fail to meet those lofty standards, his irascible nature sees him torch relationships.

PSG and Chelsea spells follow the classic Tuchel pattern

Thomas Tuchel has taken PSG closer than anyone to ending their long quest for Champions League glory. They reached the final of the COVID-affected tournament of 2020, only to lose 1-0 to Bayern Munich in Lisbon.

Tuchel knew he had to deal with indiscipline and diva behaviour in the French capital, and his attention to detail was on show early on. He would ring nightclubs to check where his players were, and would visit popular restaurants to check the nutritional value of what his players were eating.

A domestic quadruple was delivered, but once again there were clashes behind the scenes. Tuchel was frequently critical of the club's transfer dealings, and he gave a controversial interview to German television where he declared he felt more like a sporting politician than a coach. That further damaged his fractious relationship with sporting director Leonardo, who sacked him on Christmas Eve 2020, despite a 4-0 win over Strasbourg.

Tuchel's move to Chelsea a month later eventually brought him his greatest success, as he defeated his friend and adversary Guardiola in the 2021 Champions League final. It was a remarkable achievement, built on Tuchel's ability to take a struggling team and quickly find a three-man defensive system that suited the players available. He went unbeaten in his first 14 matches in charge, defeated Tottenham and Liverpool in the Premier League and dumped both Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid out of the Champions League.

The 1-0 win over Manchester City in Porto was Chelsea's third victory against Guardiola's team that season, and Tuchel's previous success against the former Barcelona boss had clearly influenced Guardiola's team selection for that final. Guardiola left out defensive midfielders Rodri and Fernandinho, unbalancing his team, and that situation was made worse by the loss of Kevin de Bruyne to a facial injury in the second half.

That Champions League success could have been a springboard, but the enforced departure of owner Roman Abramovich and the arrival of new bosses Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly proved critically important. Tuchel delivered the UEFA Super Cup, the Club World Cup and lost two domestic cup finals to Liverpool, but behind the scenes there was angst once again.

The signing of star striker Romelu Lukaku had been a disaster, and there were rumblings about players who wanted to leave after tiring of Tuchel's management style. The new owners struggled to agree with Tuchel on transfer policy, and after his 100th game in charge of the club, the German was fired.

Bayern Munich's first trophyless season since 2012 was next

Bayern Munich had long been admirers of Tuchel, and they finally brought him in to replace his old colleague Julian Nagelsmann in March 2023. Tuchel's team limped over the finish line to win the Bundesliga title on goal difference, but only because Borussia Dortmund had a final-day meltdown that saw them fail to win at home against mid-table Mainz.

Tuchel appeared alarmed by the lack of consistency in the Bayern squad, the propensity to simply switch off for long spells. He was vocal about the need for a specialist holding midfielder to screen the defence, and he dismissed the notion that either Joshua Kimmich or Leon Goretzka could fill the role effectively.

Taking aim at such established figures was a controversial move, and it completely unbalanced Kimmich, who subsequently saw his form decline. Tuchel also fell out with club grandees like Uli Hoeness, and a 3-0 hammering by RB Leipzig in the DFL Supercup set the tone for Bayern's first trophyless season since 2012.

To give Tuchel credit, he was on the wrong end of an unprecedented season from Bayer Leverkusen (Xabi Alonso's side produced the first unbeaten league and cup double in German history), and Bayern were moments away from knocking Real Madrid out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage.

The fates conspired against Tuchel at the Bernabeu - vastly experienced keeper Manuel Neuer made an uncharacteristic error to allow Real to equalise, the previously indestructible Harry Kane succumbed to a back injury in the closing stages, and a dreadful refereeing error cost Bayern what would've been a late equaliser.

Tuchel parted company with Bayern in the summer, a decision that had been made public months in advance. It means that despite winning 11 trophies, Tuchel hasn't made it to three years at a club since he was at Mainz. However, if England are merely focused on winning the 2026 World Cup, does that matter?

Tuchel has proved he is an elite tournament coach

The FA have given Tuchel an 18-month deal, and he will start his reign in January. The brief is clear - win the World Cup, and England are 7.4 to lift the trophy on the Betfair Exchange.

Tuchel feels his work has received more appreciation in England than in his native Germany, and it appears he jumped at the chance to work with the Three Lions.

He will have a core of world-class talent to work with, and his rock-solid relationship with Harry Kane should cement the England captain's place in the team. Ollie Watkins fans may prove to be disappointed if they think the Aston Villa speedster will dislodge Kane before the finals.

Tuchel can be charming and erudite, his English is excellent, and the gaps between international breaks might allow his players to have a much-needed rest from his intensity. Tuchel also won't be distracted by the transfer drama that has so often derailed him at club level.

He will be critical of his players privately and publicly at times, and his reign could be defined by how his players respond to that tough love. By winning the Champions League with Chelsea, Tuchel proved he can remould a team quickly and effectively, and he isn't wedded to one formation or way of playing.

He is a pragmatist who will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Gareth Southgate left behind an excellent legacy, a group of players that knows how to perform at the highest level and put themselves in position to win the biggest prizes. Now that the FA have acquired one of the finest tactical minds in the sport, the team might finally be able to make that final leap to glory.