England are due to take on Latvia on Monday as manager Thomas Tuchel looks to keep up his winning start and the boss has some important selection decisions to make
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Updated 22:31, 23 Mar 2025
Thomas Tuchel during England vs Albania
Thomas Tuchel made a winning start as England manager(Image: The FA via Getty Images)
Thomas Tuchel has insisted he will not do any favours for club managers - because they never help England. Tuchel even laid down the law to Mikel Arteta because Arsenal used Declan Rice in back-to-back Champions League games against PSV Eindhoven even though the Gunners won the first leg 7-1.
Pep Guardiola was one of several Premier League managers to voice their anger in the past and the Manchester City boss said he was “never so angry” when John Stones returned injured from England duty. But even though Tuchel managed Chelsea and has personal experience, the England boss says he wants to go strong against Latvia at Wembley on Monday night even though there are big club games coming up.
Tuchel said: “Given the fact Declan Rice played after a 7-1…a 7-1 first leg and Declan played the next match with Arsenal. I didn’t have the feeling that they think so much about us so I don’t think we have to break our heads about this
“I take care of the players. We take care about the schedule. But it would be the wrong signal to tell players now: ‘Hey you have tough club matches coming up so I rest you now.’
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“We have a qualifier to play, we do what’s good for us, we monitor them, we are in contact with the clubs, we are in high level monitoring where the statuses are known and we won’t take any unprofessional risks.
“Because first of all I feel responsible for the players. I don’t want the player to be injured, I want the players to play in the quarter-finals of the Champions League – all of them – because I want to watch it, I want to see it. So this is where it is and in the end we take care of ourselves and the clubs take care about themselves and the main focus is taking care of the players.”
Myles Lewis-Skelly speaking to Thomas Tuchel
Myles Lewis-Skelly scored the first goal of the Tuchel era(Image: The FA via Getty Images)
Tuchel is expected to make changes against Latvia with the England boss revealing Anthony Gordon would have started but for injury and that could mean a start for Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers.
Tuchel has laid down a warning about maintaining “standards” to his players ahead of their qualifier with Latvia. He revealed he will spell out the message to the whole squad that they must not let performance levels at Wembley on Monday night even though Latvia are 140th in the FIFA world rankings.
England struggled to break down Albania on Friday night but Tuchel is demanding a big performance from his players no matter the opposition. The manager said: “I will tell this also to the players before lunch: with all respect this is not now just to get a win over Latvia no matter how.
“This is about our standards. How do we win, how do we play and how do we impose ourselves and deserve a win against Latvia? It’s to raise the standards.”
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