FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

Disagree with this. Need to build the team around Kane and you get the best out of him by having two quality wingers playing off him whilst having a balanced midfield and helps to have a player of Bellingham's quality.

 

Hopefully Nguomoha and Scott will both have a good game tomorrow.

And if they do show enough, we can start them against Croatia.

 

I'm not disagreeing with your basic argument regarding Kane. And if we do that, then go ahead with Rashford and Livramento, and leave Rogers on the bench

I was highlighting the only realistic system we can use that would accommodate maximizing Rogers and O'Reilly.

 

Is Ngumoha confirmed to start tomorrow

 

Ngumhoa is not eligible. And Scott can only be added is someone is genuinely injured - FIFA can request their own medical assessment,

 

But what about that bet I placed this morning for Nguomoha to win the "Best Young Player Award"??

 

Can only assume you are talking about the Nations League game.

Otherwise someone is getting their arm broken like in Escape to Victory

 

You could also simply have dropped Dan Burn. Four CBs should be enough.

 

Kind of says it all when our favorite players in the squad, are not even in the squad ...

 

I think I have a personal issue with back threes tbh. I think they're good for teams that are trying to close gaps in talent to more well-resourced teams, but I think for teams that want to challenge for trophies they create more issues than they solve.

You're pretty much always either short of options between the lines or short of 1v1 ability out wide if you play a back three. It's almost impossible to have both unless you completely abandon its core principles in which case you might as well just use a different setup.

I think you also find teams playing with back threes have a tougher time getting players into the box unless they're using a very dynamic version of the setup (Inzaghi's Inter), which would take more coaching time than Tuchel has now.

I think seeing how most of the notorious back three managers (Conte, Inzaghi, Alonso at Madrid) have abandoned using it in the last few seasons shows how the modern game has become more hostile to it.

 

Tuchel has just suggested Quansah is more of a right back than CB by saying he has 4 good CB but Quansah can play there to make it 5.

Also seems Saka is not 100% fully fit. Honestly wouldn’t shock me if come the weekend he pulls out and Bowen/Palmer/Foden/Barnes/Gibbs-White is on the plane over,

Tuchel says England "still have to take care a little bit of Bukayo [Saka]." Adds: "He had an injury in the March camp and carried it through in the club campaign. He made himself available but he was managed between matches. That continues at the moment."

— James Olley (@JamesOlley) June 9, 2026

 

🗣️ "No one needs a break, everybody is available."

Thomas Tuchel discusses how he'll approach England's final pre-World Cup friendly against Costa Rica. pic.twitter.com/ful2czrrfg

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 9, 2026

"We had a choice, it was a very easy one and a very quick one."

Thomas Tuchel says Declan Rice is "one of the very best midfielders in Europe" after explaining why he chose the Arsenal midfielder as his vice-captain 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/fJRn9lq9e6

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 9, 2026

"He's a defender of the highest quality, can step into midfield, can switch between formations fluidly and is a proven winner."

Thomas Tuchel discusses the qualities he sees in defender John Stones 🤝 pic.twitter.com/mGGW4022KU

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 9, 2026

Tuchel on England's billing. “We are not top favourites, we can’t be, we haven’t won it for so many years. There are proven winners in the tournament, these are the favourites. But we compete, we dream big, we see ourselves as challengers and we want to go all the way, but we…

— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) June 9, 2026

 

Don't talk wet

 

Of course he's not fully fit Fireburn. He's been out long term. Even if he's not fit for the group games, we've got enough quality to qualify. He's not going to pull out

 

I'd be tempted to be starting Madueke through the group stage and perhaps early knock outs. He probably complements Kane's style more than this iteration of Saka anyway, and we'd get more out of Saka bringing him on for 30 minutes against a tired defence, than burning him out from starts.

 

No way should we risk our key players tomorrow. It would be madness. Costa Rica will see this as a scalp. They haven't qualified so they have nothing to lose. Losing kane Bellingham rice saka or Anderson would set us back

Ps and yes Regis I know we need to start putting a team together but it's not worth risking. Should have been done months ago

 

Add to the list of strange decisions, but it seems pretty odd to me that Ngumoha didn't even make the 55 man list given he could have listed literally every player he had called up to England plus 4 more (and some of those were injured), coupled with the fact the fact that the only actual left wing alternative to Rashford/Gordon would be Barnes who he clearly doesn't seem to rate much.

If one of Rashford/Gordon did have to drop out he'd be left looking pretty negligent and we'd be most likely left with one actual left winger for the tournament.

 

Quansah plays as a CB for Leverkusen, no? So at least he should be more of an CB option than a RB option? And certainly not as a RB option against low block where FBs need to contribute more going forward. Against New Zealand he did'nt seem to have much to contribute at that. I just assumed he was out of position as many were. I hope that is not his main gig ...

 

He could move Rogers out to the left if necessary but I do agree with your general point, seems pretty short sighted not to have named Rio in the 55 and then call him up for these pre friendly games. A lot doesn’t seem to make much sense to me in this regard.

 

Fully agree. It's been obvious for months that Saka isn't fit. We're highly unlikely to get his best level at any point in this tournament anyway but this is our best chance of maximising whatever he's got in him.

In reality Saka really does need the summer off but we can't afford to give it to him. We have such a lack of quality out wide without him. If we can't get him to a decent level it'll impact the team's ceiling a fair bit imo.

 

You could technically play Rogers or Eze there but then you run into the same problem we had with Foden at the Euro's where their preference is to drift as to effectively be central players in possession meaning there's no functional left wing and also crowds into Kane's space.

 

Ok, so he is another Henderson/Burn. Thanks for sorting that out

 

Yeah it's an interesting idea for sure.