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3 hours ago
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Thomas Tuchel made Ivan Toney the wildcard selection of his World Cup squad after holding clear-the-air talks with him over his attitude. The England head coach also considered how Harry Kane likes to play alongside Toney before making the Al-Ahli striker the most eye-catching inclusion of his 26-man party for the tournament.
Tuchel’s squad announcement at Wembley was dominated as ever by the players he overlooked – chiefly Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Harry Maguire. Tuchel said Palmer had “just failed” to produce consistently this season, while he admitted he no longer knew Foden’s best position.
Tuchel was plainly annoyed at how Maguire reacted to being told of his exclusion. The central defender took to social media to declare himself “shocked and gutted”. Tuchel said Maguire’s words were a “surprise” and “not necessary”.
Toney has come in from the cold, having been involved in only one camp under Tuchel – in June of last year for the matches against Andorra and Senegal. Toney’s involvement was limited to two minutes of the latter game and he did nothing to impress Tuchel with his application.
Yet Tuchel came back around to him when he considered how he might affect a World Cup game late on, especially if England were behind and chasing a goal. He mentioned Toney’s power on set pieces and his excellent penalty taking. Tuchel sent Justin Cochrane, one of his assistants, to watch Toney in Saudi Arabia and he received a glowing reference on him from the Al-Ahli manager, Matthias Jaissle. When Tuchel was a youth team coach at VfB Stuttgart, he had Jaissle as a player.
“I was not happy with the June camp … he [Toney] knows that,” Tuchel said. “And we had to clear the air after that. That was the first step to even start thinking about calling him up again because I was not happy. Then we started talking more deeply about the team [in recent weeks], different scenarios and his name came up constantly. Harry [Kane] loves to play with him because he thinks that he takes the attention off him.
“It was necessary that we talked with him again and clarified with him if he’s happy to come. After having another conversation with him and having very good feedback from his club coach and good feedback from the Euros in Germany, we decided to reopen the door.”
Tuchel was asked whether he had any concerns about Toney’s personality in light of the June camp. “No,” he said. “It was not a matter of his character. The level of training and the level of commitment was not where we wanted.
“He can start for us but I don’t see him as a starter. His role is to finish matches for us. He is, in this case, part of a special operations team. He knows that and that’s his role. Off the pitch, he is glue. He is someone who connects with everyone very, very well.”
Tuchel’s principal theme was unselfishness, a devotion to the framework of the squad, the collective brotherhood. It is clear he has been heavily influenced by the ignition point of his tenure – the 5-0 win over Serbia in Belgrade last September – and he remembered a scene from after the match that has stayed with him. It involved a group of five or six players who had not featured but rather than mope, they went off to do a series of running drills on an adjoining pitch that was best described as rundown.
Tuchel did not want to name the players but it is a matter of fact that of the 23-man squad that night, he has picked 20 of them for the World Cup. The three who have missed out are Morgan Gibbs-White, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jarrod Bowen. Tuchel was without the injured John Stones, Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka in Belgrade, mainstays of the squad, who are each included for the World Cup. The three new players are Nico O’Reilly, Kobbie Mainoo and Toney.
“There was almost no light at all [after the Serbia game] and the quality of the pitches was not there,” Tuchel said. “The players were not aware that Anthony Barry [Tuchel’s assistant] was watching and it was just so beautiful. They just said: ‘Come on, let’s do some runs’ and that felt really, really good. I keep going back to this as a starting point because from there we had good moments. We had the spirit where we wanted it.”
Tuchel has overlooked Luke Shaw Trent Alexander-Arnold and while there is no room for Adam Wharton. The manager said that a factor in Wharton’s omission was the ability of Reece James and Stones to play as a deep midfielder.
The squad’s Arsenal contingent – Declan Rice, Saka, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze, who will contest the Champions League final on 30 May – will join up a little later for the World Cup acclimatisation camp in Florida. Tuchel will take training players as cover for them – Alex Scott, Josh King, Rio Ngumoha and an as yet unnamed fourth.
The manager made the point that the squad was not a collection of the most talented 26 players, rather the best balanced group. “I refuse to bring players for the name and I refuse to then play them out of position just to give them something,” Tuchel said when discussing Palmer. “I prefer to have the tough decision beforehand, digest it and then push everyone else.”
Tuchel said of Foden that he was “not even sure in the end what his position is”. He added: “Is it a 10? Is it a false 9? Is it maybe more a Bernardo Silva role in the future as a No 8? It is maybe not on the wing any more.”
