FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

Oh dear lord! He’s got to be trolling us at this point!

 

6 players tuchel has left at home that I would have 100 percent taken. Colwill Lewis-skelly hall trent Wharton palmer. Those 6 would have made a huge difference. I would have left Henderson burn Quansah toney spence Chalobah behind. He's really taken the excitement out of this world cup. I believe giving him that new contract wss a huge mistake. Now he can take chances rather than pick the best players because he knows no matter what happens he's got another tournament. I think we'll bomb in this world cup and go out in the round of 32

 

if Chalobah has been called up solely as a centre-back, wouldn't it be a delicious irony if it turned out that Harry Maguire was actually the next in line, but completely talked his way out of a World Cup spot with his petulant hissy fit.

Doh!!

 

Tuchel had said explicitly after the last camp that Maguire was in that Chalobah was in front of him.

 

I woke up this morning and I felt no sense of anticipation. Normally on the day of England's first tournament game I feel tingling, nerves excitement. I think Tuchel’s bonkers squad selections has left me feeling negative.

 

I don't think Tuchel said Chalobah was called up so Quansah could play. LB. I think it's a joke.

But it is time soon. We are only hours away from Tuchels first real test as England manager. Tuchel has taken great risks with his squad selections, if this fails and England have a bad tournament, I hope he resigns. But I am feeling a bit optimistic, we are better than Croatia and should beat them, hopefully even without going full throttle for 90 minutes.

 

We would all do things differently. There must be method in Tuchel's madness. There have been tournaments where we have tried to cram the best players into a side and it has been a disjointed mess. Now it looks like we're creating a disjointed mess despite not picking all the best players. I would have loved the options of Palmer and Trent in particular but I've never put a squad together. We still have some excellent players. If Tuchel creates a team out of them then we can do well. We need to build up a head of steam and confidence in our patterns of play. We also need luck.

It is finally go time tonight and it is exciting. A very tough test to start with. I'm not sure if I would have preferred to start against the likes of Algeria or Iraq, who were awful. Hopefully we play well and win tonight but if we don't then we go again.

 

Agree but we need to hope we get no injuries or fatigue otherwise we are down to the bare bones. 2 years ago we had the likes of foden palmer to bring off the bench. Unless madueke starts and we have saka to bring on, I don't see any genuine match winners to come off the bench.

 

No he is being serious. I think it’s now possible he sees Spence as direct cover for O’Reilly and Quansah as direct cover for James and then if needs be their can cover the other side as well. Would not be shocked if James gets rested and Quansah and not Spence comes on.

 

I hope Madueke starts because I want Saka to be fully fit later in the tournament.

 

One pleasant change is that we haven't had the usual line up leaks a day before the match. That was a really annoying trait under Southgate's tenure at major tournaments

 

I agree, Palmer was a great option off the bench.

I do think Gordon/Rashford (whoever doesn't start) can provide a good injection of pace and Watkins as well. Toney provides something different too as does Rodgers and Eze. Aside from that there aren't many game changers on our bench

 

I think we know 9 of the 11 starters already

 

Keep forgetting about eze. He's one of those players that goes under the radar

 

That's one thing tuchel does right. Puts pace over technique on the wing. Southgate drove me mad when he would put foden on the left. Kane thrives on runners

 

Look at Barcola yesterday. One through ball and he was away. I'm sure Gordon and Rashford could finish off those chances

 

Shelley offers lb cover and can slot into midfield and is press resistant if rice or Anderson is hurt

chalobah is just another cb really that can cover if needed

really odd

 

Thats another big issue I have with this England squad - it's all built around Kane to the point where it's dogmatic.

And everyone defending the omission of Palmer/Foden appear to be using this as their main justification for it

 

Who?

 

I have no issues with Palmer or Foden missing out as they've both been inconsistent and not lighting up the 25/26 season. It's a lack of midfield depth and the choices in defence that annoy me

 

🚨Why Thomas Tuchel is picking John Stones over Marc Guehi for England vs Croatiahttps://t.co/wgFK9P7PTa pic.twitter.com/aKQkvX6n8e

— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) June 17, 2026

 

Southgate was never really guilty of this (cramming players) as often as people remember. The one that people always highlight was Euro2024 and the persistence of playing Foden on the LW. In every other tournament, I always believed Southgate near enough squeezed the most out of the players we had available. Although he did make his subs late and make changes too slowly.

I also think there were periods before Southgate where England were certainly more guilty of doing this (cramming players) esp in the 2000's and I've always believed it was as much down to our lack of football identity which made coaches do this, rather than simply because we had too many elite players.

 

Well looking at the rest of our attack, (apart from Kane of course), who would you say has lighted up in 2025/26?

 

On the one hand you can argue it's logical because he's performed well above anyone else this season, but equally I don't think he's ever performed to such a level in an international tournament that would make you believe he could lead a team to a World Cup or Euros.

With the entire team built around him and after the season he's had, he simply has to produce this summer. No two ways about it.