Bellingham not starting World Cup for England is fine, but he must finish it | OneFootball

We’re nine days out from England’s World Cup opener against Croatia and the main talking point, as has so often been the case since he blessed the Three Lions with his talent, is Jude Bellingham.

Less than two years on from saving his nation’s blushes at Euro 2024 with an overhead kick against Slovakia, the Real Madrid star’s place in Thomas Tuchel’s starting lineup is up for interminable debate.

Morgan Rogers has put the cat amongst the pigeons and everyone must have an opinion on who should start the first of (hopefully) eight games for England this summer.

Certain ‘journalists’ – we use the term advisedly – have consistently pushed the idea that Tuchel has a problem with Bellingham because he didn’t select him for a squad in October shortly after his return from injury; they like to assume the England manager has the same misconceptions and poorly hidden prejudices as them.

“He can’t look and see a black man doing what Jude’s doing and think he’s not an uppity n*****,” said national treasure Ian Wright in reference to one particular hack in November.

The Bellingham-Trent Alexander-Arnold ‘clique’ is now referenced as though it were fact, and already used to explain why TAA hasn’t made the squad despite far more compelling reasons for his absence featuring a) him playing very little football this season, b) most of the football he did play being mediocre at best, c) him being utter balls at defending and d) him doing nothing of particular note when given a chance for England.

But nah, it’s probably those whispered discussions with Jude that did it.

Tuchel “unintentionally” described Bellingham’s on-pitch behaviour as “repulsive” in August last year, with the “fire” he hailed in the very same response in a press conference largely ignored to push a bad blood agenda, but the Three Lions was very clear when asked about the 22-year-old on Monday.

“He is one of the starters, he knows he is one of the starters, but we have 14 or 15 potential starters,” Tuchel said. “These roles can always change, but at the moment I think there are like 14 or 15 proper starters and Jude is one of them.”

Short of him naming his starting lineup, that’s the best we could have hoped for from Tuchel.

We fully expect evidence of Bellingham’s supposed arrogance and ego to emerge from training-camp photos over the next few days to show just why he won’t be starting against Croatia, along with images of him enjoying himself in his free time, no-good multi-millionaire that he is.

But the reason he’s not a nailed-on starter is almost certainly more simple than the conspiracy theorists, Jamie Carragher included, would have you believe: Rogers is very good at football and has had a better season than Bellingham.

Carragher said on The Overlap: “I think Tuchel’s strong enough and has shown already how he’s dealt with Jude Bellingham – he’s left him out of a couple of squads. There’s been things said.

“There’s obviously a relationship to be worked on from both parties there, but I don’t see a situation, unless Morgan Rogers gets injured in the warmup games, where Jude Bellingham starts the first game.”

Despite falling willingly into a trap set by tabloid headline-writers of believing there’s some underlying beef between Bellingham and Tuchel, Carragher has come to what is the generally unpopular opinion that Rogers will start the opening game in the No.10 position.

Again, he’s had a very good season and has also played far more football under Tuchel than Bellingham, but Gary Neville is in a majority of people baffled by the thought of Bellingham being left out.

“I love Morgan Rogers – love him. But, let’s be clear, Jude Bellingham is not a sub. He’s not a sub. He’s not a sub; he’s a star. That’s it. He’s a star,” Neville told the Telegraph.

He’s one of two, maybe three, players who will have to play well for England to win the World Cup.

Harry Kane will have to score goals. Jordan Pickford will have to be a near-impenetrable wall behind a suspect defence. And Bellingham will have to do his chest-out, ‘I’m the boss here’ thing to make a game (or games) of football his.

Rogers is capable of world-class goal but has never taken a game by the scruff of the neck like Bellingham. While a clash against Spain, Portugal or Argentina could easily pass Rogers by, Bellingham will put himself in the thick of the fight. It’s who he is and if England are going to win the World Cup, he has to be playing in those games.

But that doesn’t mean he has to start the World Cup. A spot on the bench against Croatia, even Ghana and Panama, could make him hungrier – he’s evidently not a man to shirk a challenge. It would at least save his legs for the far tougher tests to come.

And so it’s worth remembering if/when Rogers is picked ahead of Bellingham that it’s not evidence of some vendetta against the Real Madrid star and nor is it confirmation that Bellingham isn’t in Tuchel’s best England XI.

It will simply mean that Tuchel has selected Rogers ahead of Bellingham for one of hopefully eight games this summer; if England are to win the World Cup, Bellingham will be starting the last.