Similarly, Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin \u2013 both also penalty-takers, as Tuchel pointed out \u2013 will go head-to-head to be the centre-forward because Harry Kane does not meet up until next Saturday. And we already know that if the captain is in the squad then he expects to start.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis solution felt the least messy,\u201d Tuchel explained. \u201cIn having the 19 players on the pitch for four training sessions and the match is very clear and then it will become clear and calm for the players. Then it is as fair as it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuchel knew he had to do \u201csomething different\u201d for this get-together, the last before the World Cup, and even considered something his predecessor, Sir Gareth Southgate, was keen on.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo we need to do something outside of football, do we need to do two or three days of some team bonding?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then I had the idea this would not be fair to the players who might say \u2018I wanted to show that I\u2019m capable of playing, I wanted to show I\u2019m a better defender or midfielder and compete for my place and now we\u2019re team-bonding\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Tuchel has already told those who can expect to be released next Saturday. But then there is the kicker.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I have told them that it can be that their camp ends on the Saturday morning. That is very likely, because someone comes in on their position and will also very likely get the minutes against Japan [in the second friendly],\u201d Tuchel explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to keep it streamlined and focused, so they know. But there is also a chance with overperformance and injuries that a player stays. If you [the media] know the names and then a player stays, it\u2019s [unhelpful].\u201d<\/p>\n
So, it is an audition then?<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course. Why wouldn\u2019t it be?\u201d Tuchel said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s very important to be clear about that, and I think the structure right now gives us exactly that, because otherwise players would have come in, felt \u2018wow, I\u2019m exhausted, two friendly matches\u2019. Do we need to rest him in the first match? But maybe someone else is there to not rest who wants to impress us and get minutes. So now it\u2019s very clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
What about egos? What about the danger that some players might regard it as a B-squad?<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that not the reality at the moment? I would never call it A and B but these players [rested] have at the moment more credit with me than the other players. I think just naming it is clear,\u201d Tuchel said.<\/p>\n
There is another win for him: other managers will love it. Especially those, such as Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, with Declan Rice or Bukayo Saka, who are playing intense game after intense game and chasing four trophies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not so worried about Harry Kane at the moment because he had already a bit of a break that comes in Germany [with Bayern Munich] in winter,\u201d Tuchel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I see that the likes of Bukayo, Morgan Rogers, Elliot Anderson. They are just three names but they have more minutes than they had in the whole of last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I look at their schedule and consider like, \u2018Ok, will Morgan Rogers get a rest at Villa with them in the Europa League and fighting for the Champions League?\u2019 Absolutely not. And that is fair. It\u2019s just normal. I would not rest him if I was his coach. So if we want to have him not fully exhausted in June \u2026 we will have him exhausted, it\u2019s just the nature of the amount of games. I think we will benefit from it and even in the short-term now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Similarly, Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin \u2013 both also penalty-takers, as Tuchel pointed out \u2013 will go head-to-head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[160074,8111,172288,218,59,10798,160075,1441,169376,217,101,55531,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-486654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apple-news-free","tag-england-football-team","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-football","tag-gb","tag-harry-maguire","tag-live-priority","tag-manchester-united-fc","tag-special-exclusion","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-thomas-tuchel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}