Thomas Tuchel on why Jude Bellingham has ‘the edge’ among abundance of England No 10s | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel says Jude Bellingham has "that edge" that England need, and that the "target" now he is recalled is to create an environment that maximises that. The coach insisted that previously dropping Bellingham and Phil Foden was not a "message" to either of them but to the entire group that his England are not about individuals, and the expectation is to "contribute" to the right atmosphere.

Tuchel similarly added that the country's abundance of number-10s does create a specific issue in that area, as he intends to build a "six-eight-10" midfield - but that he will slightly deviate from that in order to incorporate Foden's best role and potentially use him as "a nine and a half". The manager enthused that he has a "fantasy" about the Manchester City forward excelling in a specific role for England, and that they need to bring out the natural joy in his game.

One of England's advantages, as Tuchel intimated, is that they have number-10s of different qualities.

"Jude has the edge," the manager said, "which is a very good thing because you need a certain edge to reach the heights that he reached and I think we all need to help him, and to encourage him, or to create an environment that he can live this edge towards the opponent, towards the goals that we are building as a team. That is the main target.

"It is now necessary that we provide an environment and he lives up to this environment, to provide this edge for us in a positive way, and win football games."

Asked about whether the previous omission from the September and October squads had been to whip Bellingham into shape as regards certain squad standards, Tuchel re-iterated: “I think it was more of a message to the guys who were in camp rather than a message for Jude because there was no need for that, for the guys to keep their place even if a guy like Jude, like Phil, like other big names are knocking on the door and claiming their right to be back which is their right to claim that.

"The message is now ‘make sure you keep this thing going and make sure you accelerate the thing because we have something going here, we are building something, we are super-excited that you are back but the message is - contribute to it.

"But yeah, there is competition. And the players will know camp by camp where they compete. If you use the example that we bring four number-10s in. Because all four individually deserve to be in camp. And then we have four on the number-10 position but only one left-winger, for example. This does not make sense.

"And it does also not make sense to then tell, for example, Phil: 'You now go back, you trained so well, you played so well, you're a nice guy, you're a fantastic team-mate, we want you on the pitch, but there's no space on your best position, can you play left wing for us? Can you play right wing for us?' I think that does not work. So we're building a squad, we're building at the moment a squad with a six, eight and 10 position. So this is how the players compete. It brings at the moment the best out of them.

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Thomas Tuchel has recalled Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden to the England squad (The FA via Getty Images)

"And I think clarity is very, very important. So for this camp, Jude will be on the 10 position. For this camp, Phil will play - a bit of exception of the rule - he will be in the number 9-10ish position, in the middle of the pitch. And let's see. Because I have this fantasy about him since a long time. I think it suits him the most. The second goal against [Borussia] Dortmund [in last week's Champions League] is for me a key trade-mark Phil Foden goal. So he comes and supports Harry [Kane] more or less, plays maybe for Harry or whatever, in the 9 and a half-ish role."

It had been put to Tuchel that Foden doesn't seem to enjoy himself for England.

"I think you can see a player — and I can agree with your observation — that, and you feel almost like ‘Does he really enjoy it’? And a player like him who has this childish joy to play football, then obviously something is not right, be it the position, the environment, I don’t know, whatever. So we have to make sure that he comes and… I think he is also so used to playing for Man City, to play in a certain structure, to have a clear task. I think he profits a lot from clarity. Where do you want me to be? In which positions should I turn? Where am I supposed to accelerate the match? Where do I have to defend?

“Because he’s so, so good at defending. He’s so hard-working in defending at the moment for Man City that it starts, maybe, with a more central role in the middle of the pitch, where he feels more confident, where he has more connections around him. We need to create this for him. And then I think we can demand stuff from him, demand stuff on the highest level. That is how we hopefully can help him where he finds an environment where there’s maybe more clarity about what we demand in the position to express then his creativity and express his childish joy to play football, because that’s what he does at the moment."

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It was put to Tuchel that Foden doesn’t enjoy himself for England (PA Wire)

Tuchel pointed to how he would expect different qualities from Foden and Bellingham as 10s, pointing to how the latter brings a game-breaking ability.

"I think I can expect it from Jude. I cannot expect it so much from other types of players, because it's just not their characteristics. I think it's a key quality of Jude, to have this hunger, the sense for it, the movements and then the time be in this space for tap ins.

"For different players in the same position, I would have different expectations. For Phil Foden in that position, I would have the expectation of him to be around the box in a half-open body position, to turn and open on the spot to assist and shoot. Like he did against Dortmund. It's different expectations."

As Tuchel had brought up Foden as a potential "nine and a half", Tuchel was asked about the fact that Kane and Bellingham have only combined for one goal in 35 games for England. That was a 3-1 victory away to Scotland in September 2023.

"At some point it's the responsibility of the players to show the connection. We can put them there, we can make it clear, we can train them and whatever, and prepare them in a certain way. But at some point they need to connect. And then we need to observe if the connection is there. If it suits the team. Of course that is then our job to adjust it. Or to keep the thing going, or to change it."