Key events
Also from Barney Ronay, this is from last Friday after Tuchel’s press conference, and well worth a read:
“Thomas Tuchel’s first squad conference was in the event a highly convincing production, expertly phrased, and hitting just the right note of hope versus realism.”
“Firstly just to point out that Anthony Gordon was suspended for the final and not injured, so presumably he’ll be raring to go for England,” writes Ben.
“I also agree with Rick, although it wasn’t just the failure to utilise Gordon on the left that was the issue. As pointed out by Barney Ronay in this paper yesterday, the lack of pace and willingness to run beyond Kane was a big issue and so Bellingham and Foden in attacking midfield were largely static in their positions rather than running at defenders with the ball or beyond Kane without it.
“Add to that the use of full-backs who largely wouldn’t overlap, including the baffling persistence with Trippier at left back who wouldn’t and possibly couldn’t do anything else other than cut in and pass backwards or inside, and we just had no incisiveness or dynamism in attack.
“While Kane had a poor Euros, he could surely have been better if the team had actually been set up differently. It sounds from what he’s been saying already that Tuchel will be alive to this and won’t just try and stick all our ‘best’ players on the pitch together regardless of whether they suit the tactics or the system.”
An email arrives, entitled “Football coming home”, from Paul in Liverpool:
“I’ve always found that phrase cringeworthy and nonsensical. England has plenty of football “at home”. It doesn’t have trophies. That song is crap as well.”
Say what you see, Paul.
One final thing from last night … Cecilio Waterman made a beeline for Thierry Henry, the CBS pundit, after scoring Panama’s late winner against the USA in Inglewood, California last night.
‘Thank God I understand Spanish,” Henry said. “When he said, “Eres mi idolo’, [“You are my idol]) and I was like, “OK, phew!” … that was special, really.’
“That was a hell of a finish, by the way,” Henry added.
Ben Fisher
When Iñigo Calderón was appointed Bristol Rovers head coach on Boxing Day last year, his memories of the Memorial Stadium soon came flooding back. He played there once in the third tier for Brighton, the club where he became a cult hero, but his first visit had stuck in his mind. It was November 2009, while he was hunting for a club after exiting Alavés of his native Basque Country, and after trials with Gillingham, Norwich and Swansea, Southampton’s visit to Rovers in the FA Cup was next on his itinerary. “I stayed in a bed and breakfast round the corner, on Gloucester Road,” he says, smiling. “The last thing I was thinking then was: ‘I could coach here.’ It was kind of romantic when I came back.”
A migrant worker has died while working on a new stadium being built for the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, the Guardian can reveal.
Muhammad Arshad, from Pakistan, fell to his death from an upper level during the construction of the Aramco Stadium in the eastern city of Al Khobar on 12 March, according to sources with knowledge of the incident.
“We do need to entertain but maybe we need to define it a little differently. It’s not only a 4-0 or a 5-1 that’s entertaining but that the fans feel the spirit, that they fall in love with this team because they entertain them on whatever level. So a defender, for example, can entertain with hard tackles. Once the team feels the love and excitement around it, we can win easier.
“How does this team interact with each other? How do they celebrate a goal? How do they defend the goal? How do they celebrate a good tackle? Is the bench involved? Are they not involved? Is there chemistry – yes or no? I think that you [in the media] and the spectators and the people watching on TV … you can feel it if they have it or not.”
Thomas Tuchel, there. Click here to find out more:
The England defender Millie Turner has signed a new deal with Manchester United until the summer of 2028. The 28-year-old returned to United when the women’s side launched in 2018, having been in their academy.
She has gone on to make 167 appearances, scoring 11 goals, and helped them win the FA Cup last season. Turner has two senior England caps, with her Lionesses debut coming in February last year.
United manager Marc Skinner said: “Millie has been here since the beginning, and she is an important part of the team. She’s part of my leadership group but I still think there is even more growth to come. We have unfinished business and aspirations for success, she is hungry to keep improving and a key person in driving the high standards we have here as a club.” (PA Media)
Oh but one thing … can we please dispense with the “bring football home” nonsense?
Probably as much hope of that as Tuchel being allowed to simply focus on the football.
As we hurtle towards midday, here are a few other football bits from last night. Get stuck in:
I agree with Rick. By the same token dropping Kane for Watkins maybe would have taken a bit of bravery – it was also completely obvious that it needed doing. Southgate’s argument against it concerned the resulting lack of on-pitch leadership but Kane looked so out of sorts (and/or out of position) it arguably outweighed any other concern.
“I think Tuchel has hit the nail on the head about England’s failure to bring football home at Euro 2024,” writes Rick. “Southgate originally said he was going to pick players on form but ended up picking them on reputation and previous performances. He also had the most incredible blind spot when it came to making use of the left flank and having left out Rashford from the squad (having failed to use him effectively at World Cup 2022) he gave Gordon about 18 minutes in a group game where despite it being crystal clear how much more dynamic we immediately were, he never got off the bench again.”
Speaking of Reece James, I hear he gave an interview to ITV earlier this week that was taken down from social media, in which he said Tuchel is the best coach he’s worked with.
James [reportedly] said: “[Tuchel is] the best,” James said. “There’s various reasons why. He brought trophies to Chelsea when we probably least expected it, in a difficult period.”
As for England’s potential lineup I fancy Marc Guéhi and Reece James will both start, presuming all is well fitness-wise … and it would be nice to see Eberechi Eze get a run-out.
“I guess we are all waiting to see what team Thomas Tuchel picks for his first game as England manager,” emails Rick.
“Pickford, Bellingham, Kane and Rice are certain starters and Big Dan Burn, Kyle Walker and Livramento also look highly probable.
“Given that Anthony Gordon missed the League Cup final through injury or illness I reckon Tuchel may go with Rashford on the left flank. After that I haven’t a clue.”
Can we all agree that Dan Burn’s official name is “Big Dan Burn”. Like “Big George North.”
“Morning Luke,” emails krishnamoorthy. “This is a common story in the corporate world: A new CEO takes charge. His predecessor gives him three envelopes. Tells him to open them as and when he faces insurmountable challenges.
“Time passes by and the new guy faces his first challenge. He opens the first envelope. Inside is a sheet of paper with a simple instruction: “Blame your predecessor.” He does and the problem blows over.
“Soon he faces his second challenge. This time the note says “Blame the market”. He survives again. After a few months he faces his gravest challenge. The final envelope has a note that says: “Make three envelopes.” Tuchel has opened his first!”
Nice story, but I don’t agree that Tuchel is blaming Southgate for anything. This is a relatively clean slate after all. It is certainly interesting that Tuchel felt it was appropriate to be quite so scathing about the Euro 2024 campaign, though.
Another interesting line from Tuchel here. He wants to focus on the football and not get dragged into anything political … good luck with that Thomas.
“I think we have the best chance when you allow the head coach to focus on football,” Tuchel said. “I understand from [the media’s] perspective maybe the importance of the role, but maybe I can hide a little bit behind being not English and not talk to everything that happens in your country out of respect and focus a little bit more on football.”
For readers of a certain vintage and fittingly for a tournament across the pond, there will be a strong A-Team vibe to the next 16 months … Can Tuchel and his coaching team lock themselves away in a barn and weld together an improvised assault vehicle capable of winning the World Cup final on 19 July, 2026?
It’s Friday, it’s nearly 11am … it’s quiz time:
An important story by Paul MacInnes, Lorenzo Buzzoni and Chris Matthews:
The prevalence of gambling money in European football has been laid bare by new research that shows two-thirds of teams across 31 top divisions have at least one sponsorship deal with a betting firm.
As the Premier League counts down to a ban on front-of-shirt sponsorship by gambling companies, due to come into force next year, data also shows clubs in European countries have found ways to get around such restrictions.
A bit more Kane from yesterday: “We need to be willing to have uncomfortable conversations [in the Tuchel era] … to push your teammate on in a different way.
“To be in a winning team, you need to have those uncomfortable conversations … we need more players to be comfortable talking, and pushing other players. If we do that we’ll be in a good place.”
Rogers pushing for England start at Wembley
Jacob Steinberg
Morgan Rogers is pushing for a starting spot in attack when the Thomas Tuchel era begins with England’s World Cup qualifier against Albania tonight.
Rogers, who can play in a variety of roles in attacking midfield, has been in fine form for Aston Villa this season and has done well in training this week. He has not started for England yet but could feature as the No 10 against Albania, with Jude Bellingham in a slightly deeper role with Declan Rice.
Phil Foden and Anthony Gordon will hope to fend off competition from Marcus Rashford, Jarrod Bowen and Eberechi Eze on the wings.
Craig Gordon has warned that Scotland’s Nations League play-off against Greece is “by no means finished” following Thursday night’s 1-0 win in Athens. Scott McTominay’s 33rd-minute penalty gave Steve Clarke’s side the lead but the visitors had to survive almost constant second-half pressure from Greece to take an advantage back to Hampden Park for Sunday’s return leg.
The Scotland keeper insists there is still work to do before League A survival is assured.
He said: “It is still a difficult game. The tie is in the balance. You could see the quality that they have, so still another big performance needed.
“This is by no means finished, it will still be a very difficult one going into the second leg. It was a big win. We had to work really hard, especially in the second half to hang on to it. But great determination shown by everybody to grind out that second half and stay in the lead.
“We could have been more than one goal up at half-time. Maybe the second half would have panned out differently if we had managed to get further ahead.
“But give credit to Greece in the second half, they came out, put us under a lot of pressure and it was a backs-to-the-wall performance that ground out the 1-0 at the end. The guys in front were chucking themselves in front of things, it was quite desperate at times. Sometimes you have to do that to keep the ball out your net and I thought we did it very well in the second half.” (PA Media)
Leander Schaerlaeckens
On the eve of what turned out to be his first loss in a competitive match in charge of the United States men’s national team and the end of his honeymoon with his newish employers, Mauricio Pochettino said something accidentally prescient.
“Football is about timing and it’s about form and the situation of the player,” he said to a room of reporters ahead of the US’s 1-0 loss to Panama.
“I think they’re totally different characters,” Harry Kane said last night, asked about Thomas v Gareth. “Just in their personalities, the way they are on the pitch, and probably off the pitch as well.
“Obviously I had a great relationship with Gareth … we were similar in a lot of ways … I think we were quite quiet and understanding, and we had a lot of conversations about things.
“With Thomas, I think he brings a lot more energy, enthusiasm … already this week on the training pitch and in the meetings … he brings a lot of passion when he’s talking.
“It’s been great. Obviously I saw a lot of it last season. He was a big reason I went to Bayern Munich in the first place. I know his attributes, and I know how a good a coach he is.
“I think all the boys have been impressed with him, and now we’re just excited to get out there and start the next chapter.”
It’s still early, so how about a Nations League roundup from last night?
Spain snatched a stoppage-time equaliser against the 10 men of the Netherlands to secure a 2-2 draw on Thursday that kept up a two-year unbeaten streak
Aaron Ramsdale, Morgan Gibbs-White and Jarell Quansah have been told by Tuchel that they will not play any part for England against Albania tonight.
In other news, Scotland beat Greece 1-0 in the Nations League last night thanks to a penalty from Napoli midfield general Scott McTominay. Ewan Murray has the story:
I reckon England were also a little bit light on a centre-forward who can run fast, when it comes to Euro 2024.
Barney Ronay wrote about why Kane needs pace around him and how Gareth Southgate seemingly lost sight of how best to use him last summer:
Harry Kane: “I would say we were a little bit light on leadership in the summer. 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 [Henderson]. It’s great to have him. We complement each other very well in the way we lead.”
I’m sure there will be a few opinions on that. “>Why not email me?
Preamble
Today is the first day of the rest of Thomas Tuchel’s life. He officially began his role as England head coach in January, but his team spring into action for the first time at Wembley this evening, against Albania in a Group K qualifier for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
Tuchel has been brought in as an elite, gun-for-hire coach on an 18-month contract with a clear objective: winning that tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada next summer. As the old saying goes, you can’t win the World Cup in your first qualifier, but you can certainly produce an insipid performance that provokes a few days of teeth-gnashing from the media.
Alternatively, of course, you can also win handsomely and set an upbeat tone for a qualifying campaign – which would be handy because as Tuchel has told his players, they have a mere 24 days of training between the German taking charge and the start of next year’s tournament.
One way or another, this should be entertaining, especially given Tuchel’s criticism of Gareth Southgate’s side at last summer’s Euros. Let’s go!