Thomas Tuchel explains call to bench Bukayo Saka for England v Croatia | OneFootball

England begin their World Cup campaign with a clash against Croatia at the Dallas Stadium in Arlington this evening and Thomas Tuchel has made four major calls with his team selection.

Perhaps the strongest decision was to bench Bukayo Saka after the Arsenal winger recovered from an injury niggle and admitted he was “ready to go” ahead of the game. Tuchel instead decided to start Saka’s Arsenal teammate Noni Madueke on the right wing as he selected the same team that began the previous warm-up game against Costa Rica.

That also meant that Anthony Gordon is preferred to Marcus Rashford on the left wing and John Stones partners Ezri Konsa in central defence with Marc Guehi beginning the game as a substitute.

Tuchel also decided that Jude Bellingham will be England’s No.10 after plenty of pre-tournament talk had centred around his battle with Morgan Rogers for that position.

Speaking to ITV before kick off in Dallas, Tuchel explained his decisions especially to bench Saka and select Bellingham.

“Very close [call between Bellingham and Rogers],” Tuchel admitted. “In the end we stick with the team that started so well against Costa Rica. Both of them deserved to start and we will have these kind of decisions.

“Bukayo Saka yesterday had an incredible training session and deserved to start but we will not start and finish this match with 11 players. We need a strong bench and we have players who can influence and change matches from the bench, that’s very important.”

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Jude Bellingham starts as the No.10 ahead of Morgan Rogers (PA)

Tuchel was also asked how prepared Bellingham is after the midfielder struggled to rediscover his best form at Real Madrid this season and whether his previous major tournament experience gave him the edge over Rogers.

“He looked sharp and happy to be on the pitch,” Tuchel explained. “No, to be proven in tournaments didn’t play a role [in his selection] because you can turn around and say Morgan is free from any experience and ready to go, which he is. No, it was a 50/50 call and the decision goes to Jude.”

And when asked how does it feel to finally get the World Cup campaign going? Tuchel responded: “Amazing, it’s what we worked for and that was the goal of the whole prep camp, to be ready.

“We don’t want to be anywhere else, I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world than here. Let’s go.”