Thomas Tuchel discards Southgate's blueprint to build England's mettle

The Guardian

13 hours ago

When, in April 1965, a month shy of his 30th birthday, Jack Charlton was called up to play for England for the first time, he was baffled. In characteristically blunt fashion, he asked Alf Ramsey why on earth he had picked him. 'I have a pattern of play in mind,' Ramsey replied. 'And I pick the best players to fit the pattern. I don't necessarily always pick the best players.' Or at least that is the printable version of their conversation that has been left to history. 'You're a good tackler and you're good in the air, and I need those things,' Ramsey continued. 'And I know you don't trust Bobby Moore.'
There is a fallacy that the winning of major tournaments is about having the best players. It is not; it is, as Ramsey understood, about picking the right players in the right configuration – even if that means leaving out players who have played very well for you, as he did with Peter Thompson, or leaving the goalscoring darling of the media on the bench, as he did with Jimmy Greaves.
England now are in a position not unlike that in which they found themselves in 1965. They have a year left before a World Cup for which they will be one of the favourites, and they have a manager who has made clear he is not concerned by such nebulous concepts as developing the culture or blooding players to be ready three or four tournaments down the line. Thomas Tuchel, no less than Ramsey, knows his job is to win.
Tuchel does have one complication that Ramsey did not, which is that he still needs to qualify. England would expect to top their group but the two games against Serbia and the trip to Albania cannot be taken for granted. Saturday's fixture against Andorra, meanwhile, probably can. In that regard it represents an opportunity for Tuchel, a chance to foster team spirit and perhaps test out a couple of theories, even if the tougher test may come in training sessions than at the RCDE Stadium in Barcelona.
That's why, for instance, Ivan Toney has been called up. When he left Brentford for Al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League, it made sense that he should lose his place in the England squad. He had voluntarily taken himself to a lower level and it was a reasonable assumption that his sharpness would diminish as a consequence. But he scored 23 goals in 29 starts this season, playing well enough at least to be entered into the conversation for squad places.
After all, his role would almost certainly be as one of two back-ups to Harry Kane, and he remains a formidable converter of penalties. For most players the fact that only 11 of their 23 goals this season were from open play would be a negative, but for Toney it almost works in his favour: he scored 12 out of 12 from the spot, taking his career record to 42 penalties converted out of 44. Quite aside from his physicality and movement, which helped turn the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland, that is a very useful weapon to be able to bring on for a shootout.
So it's understandable that Tuchel wants a look at Toney, to see whether he has lost his edge, to work out whether he can fit into his vision for the team. Tuchel has acknowledged that he would have liked to go to Saudi Arabia to watch Toney in action but, having been unable to fit that into his schedule, it makes sense to see him in a squad environment. Whether he plays against Andorra is probably less important than the impression he has made more generally in this camp.
Pre-tournament camps, of course, are always the stuff of legend. West Germany were adamant that the 1954 World Cup was won by the Kameradschaft generated at Spiez on the Thunersee before the tournament. The Italy squad of 1982 and the France squad of 1998 talk about how they bonded against the common enemy of a critical media. Pelé led the 1970 Brazil squad in communal prayer sessions. However it is achieved, a sense of togetherness is vital.
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With time limited, this international break represents a rare chance for Tuchel and his squad to spend time together, to foster that team spirit – which, having been good for three tournaments under Gareth Southgate, seemed lacking at Euro 2024. That's why Tuchel insisted on warm-weather training and took the squad to the Barcelona grand prix last Sunday. Some tactical work may have been done, but this was far more about trying to recreate the inflatable unicorns of 2018, or at least the bonds they represented.
And this is the right time to do it. England cannot take Serbia or Albania lightly, and club commitments restrict the time available during the season. But with no English representation in the Champions League final, before a June qualifier against the team ranked 173rd in the world and a friendly on Tuesday against Senegal, there is some leeway in the calendar.
Whether it has worked will become apparent only next summer at the tournament. Either way, this week and the two games to come are not about the result or even about the performance; rather they're about what goes on behind the scenes in terms of refining the squad and engendering the right mentality.