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Like phantoms they come, the fringe candidates and rank outsiders peppering the sleep of Thomas Tuchel. Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s recent goals for Leeds were enough to propel him into Christmas consideration for Tuchel’s World Cup squad.

There will be much more of this as the clock counts down. Tuchel could easily burn through what hair he has left in deciding whom to disappoint. And that’s just the squad, never mind the starting XI to face Croatia on 17 June.

New Year’s Day marks Tuchel’s first anniversary in post. His reign began as if he were getting up so speed quickly with the business of managing England, which for as long as any can remember is about the failure of talented players and processing disappointment.

With the meek 3-1 surrender to Senegal at the City Ground in June, the Teuton in Tuchel triggered the little Englander in us. We went German for this?

There have been significant wins for him since, however, with the successful deployment of Elliot Anderson as a fast-twitch connector in the No 6 slot the most profound. The question is, can Tuchel build on the technical platform Anderson provides to cure the national complex?

Full English with a twist

In almost all aspects we have worked through our neurosis. We have accepted change, welcomed new ideas, foreign influence – the complexion of the Premier League is wholly cosmopolitan. We have a new curiosity for all things long, including throw-ins, clearances by the keeper, and the reappearance of the big fella at the back stick.

Thus have we gone full English with a twist. All that remains is to bloody win something. To do that, Tuchel must continue his renewal, building on the episodic flashes of attacking flair England showed during qualification – assertive, confident, dominant and full of goals.

The wingers

As well as the emergence of Anderson, Noni Madueke arrived as a thrilling enforcer. At first a stand-in for the injured Bukayo Saka, Madueke has become one of Tuchel’s many selection headaches.

Pace and power? Tick. Madueke also brings a kind of rakish “couldn’t give a f**k” irreverence that allows him to get after the opposition unencumbered by the shirt.

Saka is hard to drop on England’s right, but his Arsenal teammate showed it can be done, changing the tone entirely away to Serbia. And if not that, there is always the opposing wing to patrol, the left-hand side being a perpetual compromise between Anthony Gordon and Marcus Rashford.

Why Rice should be dropped

Tuchel is stacked from six to 10: Anderson, Adam Wharton, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham, Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Eberechi Eze. He can’t play them all.

To win, Tuchel has to unlock the best defences, with England in balls out mode, taking risks, believing themselves good enough to compete and fancying it.

In the Euro 2024 final in Berlin, Gareth Southgate choked against a Spanish team going full throttle Prem with Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal tearing it up on the wings and Rodri and Fabian Ruiz setting the tempo, one controlling the deep, the latter connecting the whole with understated poise.

There is barely a dissenting voice between Lands End and John o’ Groats against Rice. I get it, the lad is indefatigable, a big-shift menace. But does he have the subtlety in the No 8 shirt to unbalance the opposition in the opponent’s half as England must to write a different ending to the ancient script?

Foden or Bellingham do, and playing the latter in that role would allow for Rodgers, Palmer or Eze at No 10.

Who to leave out

Some talented players won’t make it. The likes of Ollie Watkins, Morgan Gibbs-White, Luke Shaw, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Nico Lewis, never mind Calvert-Lewin, might have no nails left come the squad announcement.

Yet the issue is less about the players but Tuchel himself. Alchemy is the requirement now. Is Tuchel the zeitgeist monster of English dreams, the mystic capable of putting all the elements together, of turning silver to gold?

No more old England, full of apprehension and doubt, please. Only a vibrant, confident, superpower ready to rock in the new world will do. Less Rule Britannia, more Achtung Baby! If you like.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/oex74YT