{"id":553029,"date":"2026-07-16T17:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/553029\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:20:08","slug":"world-cup-2026-how-does-thomas-tuchel-fix-england-for-euro-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/553029\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: How does Thomas Tuchel fix England for Euro 2028?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Kane was in the form of his life in the Bundesliga last season, scoring 61 goals in all competitions.<\/p>\n

But time is against the Bayern Munich striker, who turns 33 on 28 July.<\/p>\n

The captain, who scored six goals at the World Cup, said after the loss to Argentina that it was “too early” to talk<\/a> about playing at the finals in 2030.<\/p>\n

Kane will, though, surely be around for Euro 2028. Lifting a trophy on home soil could yet be the end of his international career. <\/p>\n

So who starts up front should not be a problem, barring injury.<\/p>\n

Tuchel’s key task is to work out a Plan B, or find an able understudy should Kane not be available.<\/p>\n

Phil Foden was given a chance in a false nine role against Uruguay in March, but he underperformed to such an extent<\/a> that he missed out on the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Tuchel took two other central strikers, Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney. Yet they were limited to one minor substitute appearance each.<\/p>\n

Watkins, the top-scoring English striker in the Premier League last season with 16 goals, played just six minutes when he replaced Kane against Panama.<\/p>\n

Kane played every other minute save for stoppage time against Mexico, when Morgan Rogers replaced him.<\/p>\n

Toney, who like Watkins is 30, was only granted the final throes of stoppage time against Argentina.<\/p>\n

It suggests an over-reliance on Kane, and alternatives must be found to ease his workload as he approaches the age of 35.<\/p>\n

Dominic Solanke (28) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (29) are the only other strikers to be used by England in the last 12 months. <\/p>\n

Watkins, Leeds’ Calvert-Lewin (14) and the 35-year-old Brighton attacker Danny Welbeck (13) were the only English strikers to hit double figures in the Premier League last season.<\/p>\n

Age is not on the side of any of these players, and it is unclear where the new blood is coming from.<\/p>\n

It was hoped that Eddie Nketiah, the England Under-21 all-time record goalscorer, would be the next prolific striker to come through the youth levels. <\/p>\n

But the former Arsenal player has scored just five Premier League goals in two seasons at Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Liam Delap, still only 23, who scored 12 Premier League goals for Ipswich Town in 2024-25, will finally find his feet at Chelsea – or at a new club.<\/p>\n

This may be a problem for another manager beyond Euro 2028, as Tuchel may feel that he has got Kane and that will do him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Kane was in the form of his life in the Bundesliga last season, scoring 61 goals in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-553029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}