England boss Thomas Tuchel has an abundance of attacking talent at his disposal but he's made it clear Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden cannot all play together
Jude Bellingham
Thomas Tuchel says he is unable to fit all England's top stars in his team
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Thomas Tuchel has warned his big names they cannot all play together as next year's World Cup draws ever closer.
The England boss has sent a message loud and clear that there is not enough space to get Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden in the same line-up. Tuchel says his current 4-2-3-1 system cannot accommodate all of them and they have all been left sweating on their places for Thursday night’s clash with Serbia and next year’s World Cup.
Tuchel said: “At the moment, if we keep the structure, they cannot play. We don't like it, not because they don't individually deserve it, but we will always do what's best for the team, we will always do what's best for winning.
“We will always do what's best for balance and we will try to keep the clarity, even if means that we have to take tough decisions.
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“We take tough decisions in any camp, and this will not change when we go to a tournament.”
Tuchel sees Kane as an out-and-out centre forward while both Foden and Bellingham are seen as No10s in the playmaker role behind the striker. Foden is also now seen as having the ability to play as a false nine instead of Kane but gone are the days when the manchester-city-fc>Manchester City forward might have been shunted wide.
Former boss Gareth Southgate tried to get as many of them in as possible while ex-interim coach Lee Carsley’s experiment of picking them all backfired spectacularly when England lost at home to Greece.
Phil Foden
Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane and Phil Foden could all be competing for places in attack
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Tuchel did clarify that they could play in a different set-up but definitely not in his preferred tactical set-up and formation. He told talkSPORT: “They can but not in the structure, not for the balance that we developed and not for structure that comes also with wingers who are like specialists in their positions. We play at the moment with a six, eight, a 10 and a nine.
“Especially in the number 10 position if you think about Phil who could play there, if you think about Jude, you think about Morgan Rogers, who played fantastic for us in this position.
“You have Cole Palmer, you have Morgan Gibbs-White, so there's a lot, a lot of players, and there's the chance that we will not take everyone.
“I think Phil can play the nine, he can play the 10. It gives him, first of all, an advantage to compete for both positions. For Man City, he plays almost like an eight, 10, so maybe during the next months we consider him as an eight.
“But, like again, I see a very, very low percentage that we take five number 10s in the number 10 position into a tournament. I don't see how this will help us.”
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