The leaks culture around England must be way beyond what any other country have. I mean we have players and their WAGS complaining about not being in the squad, even before the squad is even announced. And for us that's perfectly normal. I can't image its like that in other countries.
The German squad leaked out heavily and tons about what is happening in training and what the team will be seems to leak out as well.
There are consequences to this either way. Either we get injuries/suspensions and Henderson plays, or we don't and Anderson/Rice get overworked and fatigue far quicker than they should because Henderson can't contribute properly. If you take a player for off-pitch reasons then you have to take another player in that role to compensate. It's basic squad building but Tuchel hasn't done that.
The thing is I think Tuchel might well see Henderson as a valid option to be brought on if Rice in particular needs a rest.
So you keep on telling us. Are you hoping that if you tell us enough times we will start to believe you. If Henderson gets a significant game time then we are in big trouble and I suspect Tuchel knows this as everyone else can identify with this and if he can’t then I would really question why he is our National team manager.
Literally just about minutes in the heat. 21 squad players available to play and they all got a half, plus Rio to make up the numbers. To do that he had shoe horn some players in. I really don't think there's anything else to read into it apart from that.
He could have done this while playing combinations of players that will actually start against Croatia. If he values Quansah (who hopefully doesn't play a minute at this tournament) getting 45 minutes over having O'Reilly at LB and Rashford/Gordon playing together then that's wrong in my opinion.
There's only 6 players who have been capped more under Tuchel than Henderson, it'd be pretty surprising if he stopped suddenly playing him, especially given he is effectively one of 4 players for 2 positions. I think it seems pretty clear he has him lined up for a "closer" role in midfield. I would bet a lot of money if England are 1 goal up in the closing stages of a knock out match he will be making an appearance. He seems to just really rate him in general. I'd go further and say I fully expect him to remain around the set up through to the next euros if the world cup is remotely passable. There's a obvious difference to Dan Burn who Tuchel is seemingly unwilling to play against anyone half decent and is clearly just a character pick.
Just to cheer everyone up this is the best comp on this app pic.twitter.com/QzSC4jfp2e— 🪡 (@rhas202) June 4, 2026
He probably thinks the combinations don't matter in his pressing matters regis. He cares about fitness, acclimitizing and no injuries only. But for all 22. Combinations are not as high up.
I’ll believe it when I see it with regards Tuchel’s use of Henderson. We only had a few tough matches on paper in qualifying and he was nowhere near the pitch unless the games were dead. The only exception is coming on against Serbia at home at 1-0 but we were already qualified by then (so the game pretty much becomes a friendly). I can see Bellingham moving deeper or James moving to CM but you can’t rule anything out with the way Tuchel has operated.
Has anyone watched the first episode of England’s Lions Den on the app? Wondering if it is worth watching. Has Burn and Stones in it.
I watched it. I don't think it's worthwhile, pretty generic answers from both guys really. It's also on YouTube.
Interesting to look back at the historical ELO ratings at the start of the world cup, which is by far the best objective measurement of national teams throughout history, to really put England's "underachievement" in context. Going into the tournament our rankings have been: 1950: 1st (actual tournament ranking 8th) 1954: 3rd (actual ranking 6th) 1958: 3rd (actual ranking 11th) 1962: 7th (actual ranking 8th) 1966: 3rd (actual ranking 1st) 1970: 1st (actual ranking 8th) 1982: 5th (actual ranking 6th) 1986: 2nd (actual ranking 8th) 1990: 6th (actual ranking 4th) 1998: 5th (actual ranking 9th) 2002: 6th (actual ranking 6th) 2006: 3rd (actual ranking 7th) 2010: 4th (actual ranking 13th) 2014: 7th (actual ranking 26th) 2018: 7th (actual ranking 4th) 2022: 12th (actual ranking 6th) 2026: 4th Which tells us using an objective measure of form, there's only really the 1950's where England would have been expected to be at the business end of the tournament and yet failed to do so (with good reason in 1958 at least). In the last 50 years based on ranking going into the tournament you'd have expected us to win 0 world cups, make 1 final, and make 2 semi-finals - and a 3rd this year. Which means we've still underperformed but hardly to the expectations many seem to think. Instead the rankings suggest a team who've, at least till the last tournament, always been top 8 ranked but very rarely among the business end sides.