Thomas Tuchel believes making Kansas City their home away from home will boost England’s FIFA World Cup chances as they look to emerge triumphant from a taxing travel and fixture schedule.

The biggest ever edition of tournament will be spread across the United States, Canada and Mexico, presenting unique challenges as the Euro 2024 runners-up look to go one better this summer.

England’s base in Germany in 2024 was near Weimar in the heart of the country and a similar approach is being taken for the World Cup despite the vast distances and tight turnarounds.

Sir Gareth Southgate’s squad travelled just over 3,500 miles en route to the Berlin showpiece — a figure the 2026 group will dwarf in the group stage with return trips from Kansas City to Dallas, Boston and New Jersey.

Thomas Tuchel will attempt to lead England to World Cup glory this summer. Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images

That is almost 9,000 miles, on top of their initial travel to the United States and preparation camp in Florida.

Asked if England planned to stay in Kansas City throughout the tournament rather than move around, Tuchel said: “We’re trying to.

“We’re trying to because, basically that was the choice, to have a home, to have a home base, to have a bed that you’re used to sleeping in, to have a bed with a good mattress, to have a hotel with privacy, a small hotel.

“Not a 400, 500, 800-bed hotel where we see each other maybe just in the elevators or in the floor between breakfast and meeting, air-conditioning is on and you cannot open the windows.

“So, there are a lot of these hotels in America and I think that makes a difference, so we chose a hotel where you can open the window, we chose a hotel where it’s an intimate and small place.

“I think once we get used to that place, it makes sense to go back.

“I have feedback from the players that they like that we start late, that they like that it then becomes condensed, so you have no chance to get bored once you go hopefully through the tournament.

“I had the feeling that a day more could be quite useful so, yeah, these are some decisions that had to be made and maybe the headline is ‘We try to be as often in Kansas as possible.'”

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England’s path to the final if they won Group L would see them travel from Kansas City to Atlanta, Mexico and Miami, before a semifinal in Atlanta and onto New Jersey.

The route should they finish runner-up would take them to Toronto, before matches in Dallas, Los Angeles, Dallas again before a MetLife Stadium conclusion.

“I want to arrive with a strong group, and I want to be absolutely certain that we have a group that can enjoy weeks and weeks and weeks together, that we have the energy right, and we have the chemistry right because I spent a lot a lot of time recently looking at the schedule, and getting the schedule right in the World Cup,” Tuchel added.

“And hopefully, the longer we will get, the more demanding it will become. And it will become very condensed. And there will be a lot of flights. And there will be a lot of time at airports.

“And there will be a lot of time together. And we have to get our chemistry right. And this is the most important.”