Thomas Tuchel creates his own England problem ahead of World Cup | OneFootball

Decision to leave Jude Bellingham out of latest squad does not add up

Jude Bellingham wheeled away, having saved England from a Euro 2024 exit to Slovakia with a 95th-minute bicycle kick that’s among the nation’s finest tournament goals, stared up at the fans above and yelled: “Who else?”

Thomas Tuchel’s answer, in leaving the Real Madrid star out of his England squad last Friday, was, in effect, the 24 other players he called up instead.

Tuchel overlooked Bellingham, naming exactly the same squad as September’s, besides a few injury-enforced ins and outs.

His party line was that this was a prize for a revving up of the levels last month, the discovery of perfect squad harmony and “an identity” for the first time on his watch in battering Serbia 5-0 in Belgrade.

Tuchel’s relationship with Bellingham is under the spotlight

The FA via Getty Images

But omitting Bellingham two days after he was named England player of the year seems a flawed decision and unnecessarily controversial.

“Do I believe we are a stronger team with Jude?” Tuchel asked. “Yes. Is he one of the best players in the world in midfield? Yes.” Then pick him.

Bellingham was recovering from shoulder surgery last month so wasn’t involved, but he’s now played in all of Real’s last five games.

So a player the England manager thinks is one of the world’s best midfielders is fit and available, wanted to be selected, and was not. Curious.

Tuchel then indicated fitness had been a factor, that the 22-year-old “lacks rhythm”.

But Phil Foden, Adam Wharton and Jack Grealish - all snubbed - don’t lack rhythm. If his reason for dropping Bellingham really was to copy and paste last month’s squad, he should have stuck vehemently to that justification, not clouded an already murky picture.

“I am just picking the same team,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I?” Well, because he has so little time left before the World Cup.

Matches against Wales tonight and Latvia next Tuesday should be spent trying new combinations, reintegrating players.

England should win these two games whoever he picks, and he signed his contract on the premise that his mission was to win England the 2026 World Cup, not to win them loads of games in the lead-up.

Tuchel promises he has no issue with Bellingham, yet is implying squad harmony is better without him. And yet everyone knows it is inevitable that he will include England’s most talked-about player in his World Cup squad anyway.

Bellingham has been left out of the England squad for games against Wales and Latvia

The FA via Getty Images

There is a brashness to Bellingham, but England need that. Without that ego, he would not have attempted his Slovakrobatics. England would have crashed out.

This is not chiefly even about Bellingham. It is about clarity, consistency, and the sense that the England manager may have created a problem for himself.

If they hammer Wales and Latvia, won’t he now have to reward the same squad again and keep Bellingham in the cold?

It is hard not to see all this as an exercise of power intended to jolt those not included into action.

He is already short on time to work with Crystal Palace’s Wharton, for example, not capped since June 2024.

The better approach would have been to name a bigger squad and test if the newbies disrupt the harmony.

Tuchel said when he took the job that England’s great problem at Euro 2024 was that they “lacked identity”, that Bellingham, Foden and Harry Kane were cramping each other.

Bang on. But the way to avoid a repeat offence next summer is to fine-tune their chemistry.

Of course he reserves the right to decide England’s XI functions better without Bellingham.

But Tuchel must first uncover whether that is actually the case. He has wasted a good opportunity to find out.