Leaving out big names, berating fans and always demanding more: Thomas Tuchel has given England the shake up they needed to win the 2026 World Cup

Tuchel's very first squad announcement back in March raised plenty of eyebrows. He brought Jordan Henderson back from the wilderness, gave Marcus Rashford a second chance four months after being cast aside by Manchester United and handed Dan Burn a first-ever call-up at the age of 32, as well as a debut to 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly. With the benefit of hindsight, that now looks like the least controversial of his four squads.

Star man Jude Bellingham was the most high-profile omission for October's games against Wales and Latvia, while Phil Foden and Jack Grealish were also left out despite their excellent club form. All three played at the last World Cup while two of them started the Euro 2024 final. For Tuchel, though, the most important thing was to reward the players who had been responsible for the most productive and enjoyable camp of his spell so far a month earlier, when his side destroyed Serbia in their best performance of his tenure.

While many were aghast at the omissions of Foden, Bellingham and Grealish, as well as the the continued ignoring of Crystal Palace pass-master Adam Wharton, it was impossible to argue with Tuchel's reasoning when he declared: "We are trying to build a team. Teams win trophies, no one else."

And Anthony Gordon talked up the team ethic that the German coach has built after starring in the thrashing of Latvia. "Every performance, the commitment and the vibes and the attitude, everyone's giving everything and you can see that on the pitch," the Newcastle winger said. "It's that togetherness. You see on the pitch we're fighting and giving absolutely everything for each other which can be difficult in an international environment, because lads are coming from everywhere and we don't see each other often. The manager and the staff have really honed in on creating that [togetherness] and it's paid off."

It was suggested to Tuchel that not including England's best players was 'radical', but he offered the perfect riposte: "For this moment, we stick with our choice and the radical statement is that we don’t collect the most talented players. We collect the guys who have the glue and cohesion to be the best team, because we need to arrive as the best team. We will arrive as underdogs at the World Cup because we haven’t won it for decades and we will play against teams who have repeatedly won it during that time. So we have to arrive as a team or we will have no chance."

Tuchel said he was taking cues from one of the greatest sporting dynasties in modern history, the New England Patriots, who won six Super Bowls in the space of 19 years following the turn of the century.

But there was another parallel much closer to home for him to learn from: The failure of England's so-called 'Golden Generation' of players that included David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry. And the timing could not have been better from Tuchel's point of view, as Gerrard had just confessed in a podcast with Ferdinand how miserable he found the experience of playing for England.

Gerrard, who was England's captain at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups as well as Euro 2012, never went beyond the quarter-finals at a major tournament, and admitted that he "hated" his experience with the national team. The Liverpool legend revealed that he spent most of his time alone in his room with nothing to do, feeling "low and down", and he conceded that he had almost no bond with the rest of the squad.

"It was like I didn’t feel part of a team. I didn’t feel connected with my team-mates with England," he explained. "I think we were all egotistical losers. Why couldn’t we connect as England team-mates back then? And I think it was down to the culture within England. All in our rooms too much. We weren’t friendly or connected. We weren’t a team. We never at any stage became a real good strong team."

For Tuchel, Gerrard's words were a gift, and he was delighted to expand on them in his press conference ahead of the Wales clash: "When I hear people talking about their titles in international football or their missed chances, I always hear the same song: we have been a team or we haven’t been a team. It is always the same song in international football. I also think it is the same headline in club football… If you stick together 24-7 for a nine-day period, and then as long as possible in America, you have to be a strong group."

Sir Gareth Southgate is rightly credited for ensuring that playing for England was once more an enjoyable experience, and Gerrard said that the former coach was "underrated for how he connected with the England team". And yet by the end of his tenure, Southgate was making the same mistakes as his predecessors Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello. 

While Eriksson and Capello could not resist playing Gerrard and Lampard together despite their similarities, Southgate insisted on starting Bellingham and Foden in all seven games at Euro 2024. He also persisted with Harry Kane even though his captain clearly lacked sharpness after recently returning from a back injury. Despite making it to the final and only losing to Spain courtesy of a late goal, England rarely looked like a cohesive team on the pitch in Germany, as they rarely produced good play and repeatedly relied on individual moments of brilliance.

Tuchel may well bring Foden or Bellingham back into the fold in time for the World Cup, especially if the Real Madrid midfielder returns to peak fitness after his spell out following shoulder surgery, and yet it matters not. The coach has already drawn a line between him and those who came before him by sending out a clear message that he is not afraid to drop anyone.

Many winning teams have benefitted from leaving out talented but problematic individuals; France won the 2018 World Cup without Karim Benzema (leaving him out for non-sporting reasons) and then reached the final in 2022 when he was out injured, while Spain began their golden era after Luis Aragones dropped Raul, to the chagrin of the Real Madrid-centric media. 

However, it could be argued La Roja's downfall came when Vicente del Bosque became too loyal to the players that had previously won it all. Pedro and Iker Casillas complained privately and in public of not playing much at Euro 2016, which contributed to a negative atmosphere before they were knocked out in the last 16 by an Italy side coached by Antonio Conte that lacked stardust but had plenty of passion and fight.

Tuchel has recognised the importance of having experienced operators at international tournaments. Ten members of Argentina's World Cup-winning squad in Qatar were 30 or over, while the Croatia team that made it to the 2018 World Cup final had five players into their fourth decade. In this context, Tuchel's recall of Henderson, who was one of five players over the age of 30 in his October squad, makes more sense.

Kane explained the wisdom of having an older squad back in March, saying: "Whenever you go to major tournaments, I don’t think it’s just about having the best players in the best moments. It’s about creating an environment where you allow other people to thrive, people knowing their roles within the squad. I would say we were a little bit light on leadership in the summer [at Euro 2024]. Especially when things are not going so well, or there’s a lot of noise around the camp, that’s when you need players like me and someone like Jordan."

Tuchel's squad selections are far from the only way in which he has shaken up the England team. He is demanding more of the players who are with him and performing well, like when he chose not to congratulate Bukayo Saka on his stunning goal against Wales, and rather questione why the Arsenal winger had not scored more than 13 goals for his country.

"It has to be more – it’s not enough, so he needs to keep on going," Tuchel said of Saka. "I thought it was 30 at least, and I would have said, ‘it’s still not enough,’ because I am never satisfied. He is such a threat for Arsenal in the most challenging league in the world, so why would he not be at the international level?"

Rather than bask in the glory of that win against Wales, the coach also decided to bemoan the poor atmosphere at Wembley. But while fans do not normally take criticism about a lack of atmosphere well, many agreed with Tuchel. The overall positive response - chants in Riga on Tuesday not withstanding - to his outspoken remarks showed how the tide of fan opinion towards the coach is turning from suspicion to optimism.

It is difficult to imagine Southgate taking a swipe at fans following a win or Saka after scoring a goal, and yet most would agree that England have been allowed to coast for too long. Decades of playing it safe and indulging star players has not helped them win a major trophy, but Tuchel has come at the job with fresh eyes and a different perspective. He has given the whole England set-up a shake and demanded they pull in a different direction, and it can only stand them in good stead next summer.