\u201cHe seems to be more and more ready, and will hopefully push, and then we will see what is coming,\u201d Tuchel said. \u201cHe\u2019s getting there, and there\u2019s more and more training sessions, so he needs to have more sessions now. Two sessions to be ready for Panama. It\u2019s not only about Bukayo, but it was good he got some minutes under his belt. Hopefully, there is no reaction and he is good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuchel was asked whether Saka is the kind of \u201cbig-game player\u201d England<\/a> need after a disappointing performance against Ghana when they managed only four shots on target. \u201cWe need it from everyone,\u201d the head coach said. \u201cI\u2019m not engaging in that. It\u2019s not like Bukayo comes back and everything is solved, and I don\u2019t want to put this on his back. He is a top player, that\u2019s why he is with us. We need him desperately, like every other player, in top shape, and pushing. But everyone is doing their best, and it\u2019s not the moment to shout for individual names to help us out. We\u2019re in a good place, still.\u201d<\/p>\n It is understood England are monitoring Declan Rice\u2019s fitness after the midfielder was spotted with heavy strapping around his left calf as he left the stadium on Tuesday. Rice revealed last week that he had been managing neural pain in a hamstring since December but insisted he was \u201cready and fit\u201d. England will also keep an eye on Reece James\u2019s workload given the Chelsea defender\u2019s recent injury history.<\/p>\n Bukayo Saka profile<\/a><\/p>\n Tuchel is not expected to make wholesale changes against Panama, whom England thrashed 6-1<\/a>0 at the 2018 World Cup in Russia but who have twice lost 1-0 at this tournament. Nico O\u2019Reilly could return at left-back in place of Djed Spence but Tuchel stressed the importance of continuity.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not shy to do some rotation now,\u201d he said. \u201cSome players should be on the pitch but maybe it will be more moderate. It\u2019s not always fair if you just rotate your players in and say: \u2018OK, let\u2019s perform.\u2019 Let\u2019s see. I like for example the centre-backs [against Ghana]. They were good together. I like Elliot Anderson, he had a step forward and a good performance, maybe a bit better than against Croatia.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe created half-chances, we created deliveries and set plays but couldn\u2019t score from it to change the characteristics of the game. I know it\u2019s not an easy watch. Maybe I watch it differently from the sideline as a coach. I know what we wanted and what we had to take care of.\u201d<\/p>\n England go into the Panama game top of the group on goal difference from Ghana and with a goals-scored advantage, by virtue of the 4-2 win against Croatia. Tuchel said: \u201cThere is a long way to go and no one has won a World Cup<\/a> with four goals per match and going for it. We always want to go for it and our responsibility is to bring everything to the table. We tried and tried but it\u2019s difficult sometimes and there is no need to feel negative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel is hoping Bukayo Saka could start against Panama on Saturday, but warned the Arsenal forward cannot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-509321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782311733_174_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n