\n<\/p>\n
Trent Alexander-Arnold sits next to Palmer and Gibbs-White as an underappreciated asset. His exceptional passing range could have been invaluable to England at the World Cup, potentially providing the composure and technical quality that Tuchel felt his team lacked against Argentina.<\/span><\/p>\n The Real Madrid man is simply too good to miss out on any further major tournaments, though he is another who was recalled on a conditional basis. “[He needs to] perform, that’s just what it is. It is a competition and we trusted other players [at the World Cup]. I still stick with this decision and it is now time to fight for his place,” Tuchel said. “He always said he is up for a fight, he always said he is up to fight for his place – especially for England – so it is on him to prove and he is more than welcome in camp. We have a long camp and I am sure he will show up.”<\/span><\/p>\n Three defenders who did star at the World Cup, Reece James, Djed Spence and John Stones, are all absent with fitness issues. It’s entirely possible that Tuchel would have snubbed Alexander-Arnold again had that not been the case, as he stuck with O’Reilly, Jarrell Quansah and, initially, Livramento as his other main full-backs.<\/span><\/p>\n England’s backline often looked fragile in North America, and there is no obvious successor for Stones as he nears the twilight years of his career. Jarrad Branthwaite has done well to catch Tuchel’s eye with a decent start to the season at Everton, but there will be a lot of pressure on him to strike up an instant rapport with Marc Guehi in the centre.<\/span><\/p>\n Tuchel must also be worried about the state of the attack behind Kane. Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be first off the bench this time around, but Ollie Watkins could be out of the picture for good after deciding to join Toney in Saudi Arabia. Kane should still be physically ready to lead the line at the age of 34 when the next Euros kick-off, but it will be a lot to ask for him to play every single minute.<\/span><\/p>\n Tuchel may have to fast-track 17-year-old Aston Villa striker Brian Madjo to give Kane more support. To his credit, the former Chelsea boss is already giving several youngsters a chance, with Liverpool wonderkid Rio Ngumoha and Bournemouth’s Alex Scott both in line to make an impact over the next three weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n Arsenal’s 19-year-old sensation Myles Lewis-Skelly is set to add to his haul of six senior England caps, while Newcastle’s Lewis Hall will be eyeing his fifth. If Max Dowman continues on his current trajectory at Arsenal, he will surely also be in the picture soon. Tuchel can win over a lot of his doubters by making these youngsters staples of the next two-year cycle, but they need<\/span> proper<\/em><\/i> coaching.<\/span><\/p>\n England have the strength in depth needed to get to the same footballing level as Spain. Any stubborn views to the contrary that Tuchel still holds have to be dropped, or history will repeat itself at the Euros, and his tenure will be remembered as the same waste of time and resources as Capello’s was.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trent Alexander-Arnold sits next to Palmer and Gibbs-White as an underappreciated asset. His exceptional passing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}