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Jack Grealish handed World Cup ultimatum by Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel has suggested that Jack Grealish needs to move to a club competing in Europe and playing “every three days” to keep his England World Cup dream alive.

As first revealed by Telegraph Sport, Grealish will use the summer to try to find the best possible move away from Manchester City instead of travelling to the Club World Cup.

Tuchel, the England manager, confirmed that he too had been made aware that City are not planning to take Grealish to the United States this summer and spelt out exactly what the 29-year-old must do to force his way into his plans.

Grealish is desperate to go to next summer’s World Cup after missing out on last year’s European Championship and Tuchel hinted that he would need to be playing for a club in European competition to stand a chance.

That leaves open the possibility of Grealish making a romantic return to Aston Villa, who will play in the Europa League next season.

Asked about the latest developments surrounding Grealish, who is not in the England squad for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra and next Tuesday’s friendly against Senegal, Tuchel said: “I have maybe the same information as you that City are thinking of not taking him to the Club World Cup.

“So he needs to make himself available by playing. I think it’s one of his key strengths. To go every three days and get better and better with every minute that he has in his legs. That’s what is missing, nothing else.

“I love Jack for his personality and of course his talent. He is a very unique player who can handle big pressure on the field. He is never shy of pressure. It’s the opposite.

“He grows in big matches, but he’s a player who needs minutes and minutes and minutes and simply does not get them for a very long time. That’s basically everything. Nothing has changed.”

On whether or not he had spoken to Grealish, Tuchel added: “I have spoken to him before the first international camp and very shortly after the FA Cup final, but not since then.”

It is anticipated that Grealish will have plenty of interest from the Premier League and overseas, and the prospect of a return to Villa has not yet been ruled out.

Villa sold Grealish to City for a then British record £100million and the player earns in the region of £300,000, which represents a significant challenge to any summer move.

Other than suggesting that Grealish needs to move to a club competing in Europe, Tuchel has said that it would be “ideal” if one of his goalkeepers was playing in a European competition for their club next season.

That could give Dean Henderson and James Trafford a boost in their fight to oust long-term number one Jordan Pickford.

Henderson is waiting to find out if FA Cup winners Crystal Palace are allowed to compete in the Europa League, while Burnley goalkeeper Trafford is a transfer target for Newcastle United and has also attracted Chelsea. Newcastle and Chelsea both qualified for the Champions League.

Palace shareholders John Textor and David Blitzer also own stakes in Lyon and Brondby, which has put Palace’s place in Europe in doubt.

Pickford goes into the Andorra and Senegal games as Tuchel’s first-choice goalkeeper, but the Everton star has been warned that he faces a fight for his place ahead of the World Cup.

“All three of our goalkeepers are not involved in European football, they’re not used to European football which would be ideal,” said Tuchel. “It’s not a problem, Jordan behaves and trains at the highest level and we’re very, very happy with him.

“He’s doing everything at the moment to keep his place because he feels that Dean stepped up and found another level, another gear. He also found a title and a decisive role at Crystal Palace. He got an important and vital title for his club and he was a big figure in this campaign. This helped his confidence a lot.

“Then we have the very young James Trafford, who played a fantastic, record-breaking campaign with Burnley and got clean sheets. Hopefully he can prove himself next season in the Premier League and then the race is on. It will always be a fight for every position, there is no exception for the goalkeepers. At the moment Jordan is in a good place mentally and performance-wise. It helped him to stabilise himself at Everton with the change of manager with David Moyes he became very, very stable and also emotionally stable and we’re very happy with that at the moment.”

Jordan Pickford, Dean Henderson and James Trafford England look on

Jordan Pickford is coming under threat from Dean Henderson and James Trafford - Getty Images/Eddie Keogh

Saturday’s opponents Andorra are ranked 173rd in the world, behind St Vincent and the Grenadines, but Tuchel has set his England side a series of challenges to meet in his third match in charge.

“We demand a win and we demand a convincing win, one without doubts, this is what we demand,” said Tuchel. “If you really demand this from yourself then it comes with responsibility and professionalism.

“It comes down to yourself, to show you’re happy to be here, committed to what we are trying to build. This is exactly what I feel from the players. If the question is, ‘did I give any signals about if we didn’t train so well, but still you can play without taking it seriously,’ then absolutely not.

“We will try something against Andorra – how to attack the opponents’ box against a deep block, because this is what we expect, a very deep 5-4-1, and the main targets will be how do we arrive behind the back line, how do we arrive in the box, how often do we arrive there, how good do we find the rhythm to arrive in the opponents’ box, and how good is our reaction to ball losses to play counter-pressing. So at the moment I don’t get lost in thinking about formations. It’s more about behaviour and giving headlines for certain matches.”

Tuchel watched Spain’s gripping victory over France on Thursday evening from England’s base and will have been struck by the fact there were nine goals yet not a traditional centre-forward in sight.

Kylian Mbappe scored for Les Bleus and has played centrally all season for Real Madrid, yet is far removed from an old-fashioned No 9. Mikel Oyarzabal led Spain’s attack as a false nine.

It would be reasonable to assume Tuchel has given thought to how England might win important games without their centre-forward and greatest goalscorer. Harry Kane, after all, was watching from the substitutes’ bench for the final half-hour when England were chasing the European Championship final 11 months ago. They secured a place in the final when he was replaced by Ollie Watkins, who scored the winner against the Netherlands.

Jack Grealish handed World Cup ultimatum by Thomas Tuchel

England manager Thomas Tuchel is locked in conversation with Harry Kane at the RCDE Stadium in Barcelona - Reuters/Peter Cziborra

Kane could end up with 100 international goals given his rate of scoring but it would be foolish to head into the World Cup next year with no Plan B. If there is anything to be gleaned from playing against Andorra, it will be finding attacking combinations to break them down.

The qualifier will also be played in 25-degree temperatures, which will make for a worthwhile exercise in dealing with the intense heat expected in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Lee Carsley’s answer to playing without Kane was to shoehorn all of his creative players into a formation, which had a disastrous result against Greece in the Nations League. Tuchel’s like-for-like No 9 options are limited, given that Ollie Watkins has returned home after a thigh injury.

Dominic Solanke was overlooked for this clash and the friendly against Senegal on Tuesday, while Tuchel confirmed he would be keeping a close eye on Liam Delap following his move to Chelsea from Ipswich this week. But the £30 million striker will not be playing tournament football for the Under-21s, as the Club World Cup has priority over internationals, so he will head to the United States with his new club.

“It would have been nice for him and for the FA for him to play a big tournament. But that’s nowadays football,” said Tuchel. “There are some rules and it’s club first. It would have been nice to do the 21s and would have been nice to see him lead them as the main striker.

“For him personally and the next big challenge – and we will be monitor him closely – will be to see if he can impose himself on the Chelsea squad, grab his place and make himself available for us.”

Left in Tuchel’s squad as back-up to Kane is Ivan Toney, the forgotten hero of England’s run to the Euro 2024 final. His movement made space in the penalty area for Jude Bellingham’s scissor-kick against Slovakia, then he scored a no-look penalty in the shootout win over Switzerland.

Toney was dropped from Tuchel’s first squad, but recalled for these games and came back into the squad as an Asian Champions League winner with Al-Ahli.

“Ivan made every training session with us, is very lively in the group, is very well connected in the group as we can see, and it’s nice to see. And he just adapted very smoothly,” said Tuchel.

“He showed everything we can expect. He is the goalscorer, he proved himself in Saudi Arabia, he seems fit, he’s lean, he looks sharp in training. All fine and we’ll see if he gets some minutes in the next two matches to prove himself.”

Tuchel admits he is still working on what style of football England will be playing at the World Cup. He wants to take the qualities of Premier League footballers, yet knows the heat will be a factor next year.

“It is maybe not a coincidence that players felt the most comfortable in the Qatar World Cup, where they were in the middle of the season and suddenly the demands of the Premier League became an advantage,” said Tuchel.

“It can be that, at some point, we need to adjust our style of play when it comes to tournament football. Everyone wants to win, Everyone wants to win in style.

“Can you really play the same game in 40C heat and humidity that you play in 20C in an evening match? I don’t have to right now because we still have one year to go but we are on it to answer them.”

Such is Tuchel’s attention to detail, players have taken a “biometric pill” that measures their internal temperatures in extreme heat. “Each player will have a different feeling about it, how comfortable it is and then you have the objective data that can help,” he said. The German coach’s task will be to align the data with a way for England to play winning football in a year’s time.

“We don’t want to have an open match against Andorra. We need to find solutions. That’s the target and for that we need quality, focus and hunger. That’s what we feel in the camp at the moment,” he said.

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