Thomas Tuchel has a clear England vision - but one major change is needed at World Cup 2026 | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel says England’s players need to “drop their club hats” as he insists his true England football team will start to be seen over this international break, but admitted that the Club World Cup has influenced his thinking on preparation for a hot summer next year. Tuchel acknowledged the team would not be able to play in the same way in different parts of America, as he marvelled at just how much variety there is in the international game now.

He said that the camp for next week’s matches at home to Andorra and away to Serbia will primarily be about developing a plan to open up a 5-4-1 low block, but also while incorporating it into a longer-term system. Tuchel said that one consequence of a difficult June break was to strip down the squad, as he also stressed that all decisions - like leaving out Trent Alexander-Arnold - were ultimately “competitive”.

England narrowly beat Andorra 1-0 before losing a home friendly 3-1 to Senegal, but the manager felt that was mostly due to the fractured nature of the camps and said “I understand international football better now”.

The former Chelsea boss added: “We will work from Tuesday on exactly these patterns that we want to see. We need to make them clear, transport them to the players. And then everyone needs to learn them because we don’t have a lot of time, so they need to be understandable.

“And the players need to drop their club hats, the way they play in their clubs, and buy into these ideas and from there we go.”

Questioned on how England haven’t yet offered much sign of a new identity, Tuchel promised that would change.

“We will see them. I’m very sure because it will be very clear,” said the German.

“They involve the different phases of the match. The focus will be on deep build-up when we are on the ball. The focus will be on how to overcome a middle block and, defensively, how do we want to attack and press in the opponent’s half and how do we want to attack and press in the opponent’s half and how do we want to defend ourselves in the middle block.”

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England manager Thomas Tuchel enjoys making tough decisions for his squad (PA Wire)

Asked about playing his classic pressing game - “the Stuttgart school” - in the stifling heat of the States, Tuchel said that the game itself is now too varied.

“I think there is no more ‘Stuttgart school’ or whatever! I think there is so much going on on a football field that it is scary. There is man-marking, there is zonal into man-marking, there is deep blocks, there is back three, there is back four, long throws are back, the long ball from the goalkeeper is back. Everything is back, and everything changes between matches and it changes even within matches. Change of position is back. Overlapping, underlapping is back. It’s very, very demanding.

“Shall we now try to play in Birmingham (Villa Park for Andorra) like we play in Orlando? I think it’s simply not possible. We will maybe have more intensity, hopefully more sprints in Birmingham - very likely - than we have when we arrive in the USA. But first of all we need to qualify. I know that everyone expects us to qualify. I expect us to qualify. But we need to do it.

“Both teams come now in a deep block. Both teams will play 5-4-1. It’s so difficult to break down a 5-4-1. Almost every team struggles to play against a deep 5-4-1.

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England men's head coach Thomas Tuchel, attends the news conference in London (AP)

“And we have to overcome these things first, before we think about a game model for America. But we cannot wait until we are there. We can then modify our model. But the model starts now and it starts on Tuesday.”

Tuchel says the Club World Cup has influenced his thinking for next summer.

“It was unbelievably hot,” admits the England boss. “It was very, very hot and very hostile conditions to train and to play. It’s one thing to know it, it’s another thing to feel it, it’s another thing to watch it. It’s another thing to play in it.

“The distances will be huge, it will be humid, it will be very, very hot. But there are several strategies to cope with it. If you look at the two finalists [Chelsea and PSG] and the strategies how they coped with it for the preparation for the tournament and then in the tournament - very, very different. So we have just one tournament to look at and we need to be very careful because this does not give us a case study.

“It’s just one tournament and Paris started on the west coast, travelled a lot through time zones, travelled a lot of kilometres, played in closed roofs in between the tournament and then ended up in the final. Chelsea stayed on the east coast, a lot of traveling but less distances, less time zones, trained in the heat, played more in the heat than Paris and arrived in the same final and then beat them in the final with an outstanding performance.

“They could have also been 1-0 or 2-0 down in the first 10 minutes, so you need to be very, very careful. Obviously, there is more than just one way to arrive in a final and we have a lot of things that we observed and learned. We will not stop learning, but the focus now, and this is very important, is on qualifying and that means the focus now is on the 10 days in St George’s Park and in Belgrade.”

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Thomas Tuchel at the Women's Euro 2025 match between France and England (The FA via Getty Images)

The headline news from Tuchel’s squad announcement was that Trent Alexander-Arnold had been left out. Tuchel said there was a lot of factors to that, like settling in Madrid, but that it was “first and foremost” a “competitive decision”.

“Reece [James] is at the moment slightly ahead on this position, given what he did for us in the last two camps and how he played the Club World Cup with Chelsea. And then we went for Tino Livramento because of the rhythm that he has and he gives us the option to cover both sides.

“Also as a left full-back. I spoke to Trent, also was a difficult phone call but I wanted that he hears it from me. Which he appreciated and he was very clear that he’s desperate and keen to come back and play for England.”

Tuchel also said that he immediately sought to speak to Jude Bellingham after he unintentionally used the word “repulsive” when speaking about how his mother would find the midfielder’s behaviour - but that she also had a right to be annoyed with him.

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England manager Thomas Tuchel watches on from the Royal Box at Wimbledon (Reuters)

“The headlines caused upset of course, for Jude,” conceded the former PSG and Dortmund tacticians. “And I’m sorry for that. I think that if someone makes the effort to listen to the whole answer he would clearly understand the appreciation that I have and the affection I have for the player. OK, I used the wrong word in my second language. That makes it my responsibility and of course it’s an upset for the player.

“I made contact. When I was aware of the headlines I made contact straight away.”

And Tuchel said his mother missed the controversy.

“It was in English so I don’t think she was fully aware of that,” Tuchel concluded. “She had the right to be annoyed at me.”