Thomas Tuchel’s latest bold decision proves he knows England are f***ed without Harry Kane | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel’s latest bold selection decision proves that he knows England are doomed without Harry Kane and he actually “needs to be nervous”…

In some ways, this era of England is actually the ‘Golden Generation’, as this country is blessed with immense options in certain positions.

This is particularly the case in midfield, while they are fortunate to have one of, if not the best, strikers in the world at their disposal.

As much as we love to joke that he has actually scored zero proper goals for England, Kane has taken his performances for club and country to extraordinary heights, and even at the age of 32, there is no real sign of him declining anytime soon.

In the short term, this is great news for England as they should have Kane at the peak of his powers for next summer’s World Cup and he may still be at a similar level for the 2028 European Championships.

However, England will eventually have a severe issue, as there is a sorry lack of viable alternatives in the running to be Kane’s long-term successor.

This is hardly a groundbreaking revelation, as it’s been known for a while, but this issue has suddenly come more to the fore after everyone associated with England had been blissfully ignoring what’s to come as Kane continues scoring at a remarkable rate.

The only striker who has come within breathing space of Kane’s output in recent years has been Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, but the 29-year-old has endured a chastening start to the 2025/26 campaign after missing out on a move to a Big Six club in the past two windows.

Watkins arguably reached his maximum in the previous two seasons, as there has always been the feeling that he lacked the necessary final product to be deemed an elite striker, and he has had a really poor start to this season.

The out-of-form Villa star is among the four English strikers in the Premier League not named Danny Welbeck who have only scored one goal this season, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Eddie Nketiah and Callum Wilson the others. Chelsea newbie Liam Delap, meanwhile, was goalless before suffering his injury.

And Watkins’ decline has cost him his place in the England squad for November’s international break, with another component of Tuchel’s bold decision being opting against including another natural No.9 to replace him.

Welbeck can be justified in feeling aggrieved not to be included, as he sits on six Premier League goals from ten games and has generally been really good for Brighton since the start of last season.

But it says a lot about how little Tuchel thinks of Welbeck, Watkins and England’s other strikers that he did not feel it necessary to include another natural No.9 to share the load with Kane.

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On omitting Watkins, Tuchel said on Friday: “No one needs to be nervous. We have a lot of good strikers. Ollie is one of them.

“We just understood and could observe when we watched Ollie that he his playing through discomfort, it simply didn’t make sense to bring him to camp in this condition.

“We opted to give him this break to get treatment and be back in full physical capacity and best shape and then fight for the place again in March.”

Whether Watkins’ “discomfort” is a legitimate reason or is a cover-up for him being omitted due to poor form is a debate for another day, but Tuchel certainly has a “need to be nervous” as he goes all in on Kane being England’s main man up front.

If you are going to go all in on a striker, it may as well be one as good as Kane. But it only takes one of those pesky muscle injuries for the Bayern Munich striker to derail Tuchel’s plans for next summer, with Tuchel’s clear stance on his forward options indicating that he does not trust any of them to do an adequate job of filling in if/when needed.

And Tuchel is asking for trouble by refusing to give Kane a break during this break, adding: “Not in November! He has a break in winter in Germany.

“That suits him very well to have that little break given where he is in his career. That’s why he has no excuses for the next two matches.”