'Tuchel's gambles and iron conviction position him as the anti-Southgate'

Tuchel has come up with an emphatic answer to the question of whether Manchester City's Phil Foden or Chelsea's Cole Palmer should make his squad – neither.

In reality, Foden or Palmer can have no complaints based on form this season. Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White and Bournemouth's Alex Scott can be equally, if not more, aggrieved.

And Crystal Palace's Adam Wharton, a smooth mover and passer but maybe not quite intense enough for Tuchel's liking, might just be the most disappointed of all.

England's midfield has great talent, but could Tuchel not have made room for one more creator in that area rather than effectively pick two understudies to Harry Kane in Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins, who deserves to go on current form, and Toney?

Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson will form the bedrock of England's midfield, but there was certainly a strong case for either Wharton or Gibbs-White to make the plane.

Kobbie Mainoo's renaissance under Michael Carrick at Manchester United in the second half of the season got him a place in the squad, as did his previous successes at club level.

"We have a huge chunk of youthfulness in the squad" said Tuchel. "We have six players who have won titles with the under-21s.

"We have Kobbie Mainoo, who is still young and has won his titles, we have Nico O'Reilly on top who is young and already won his medals."

Further thorny issues will become clearer soon, such as who gets the nod between Bellingham or Aston Villa's outstanding Morgan Rogers in the number ten role.

Tuchel has never swayed from his belief the influence Brentford's Jordan Henderson, who will be 36 on the day England play their first game against Croatia, has on his squad. It is hard, though, to see him getting many minutes at the World Cup.

Once again, as he has done since he took over, Tuchel has conviction in his principles and has stuck to them firmly.

He said: "The squad has a significant number of players that will compete for starting minutes and starting places, that also gives us the chance to rotate on a high level and a significant number of players who carry the sportive responsibility on the highest level."