Tuchel's at the Wheel: A Preview of What's to Come for England's Lions

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

There was an understated, yet unfamiliar buzz to this March’s international break: Thomas Tuchel was in the England dugout, eyes pried over his curtain raisers against Albania and Latvia, and I was attempting to squeeze an entire tactical vivisection into an article. Let’s get on with it.

Figures 1 and 2, Courtesy of ITV Sport and NTV Plus Sport

Against Albania, Tuchel opted for a 4-3-3 base which shifted into a 2-3-5 (Figures 1 & 2). Curtis Jones laid alongside Declan Rice when deeper in a pivot that constantly shifted around (Figure 3), and higher between-the-lines in the final third. Kyle Walker often darted up and inside to time an opening for Phil Foden, who, akin to Cole Palmer, struggles when removed from a central, shot-heavy role. With the indisputable Bukayo Saka beckoning, and Tuchel’s preference for harmony between profiles—as opposed to his predecessor Southgate—the ‘shoehorning’ of free-role, ball-to-feet profiles looks left behind. It was on England’s left-hand-side that Tuchel’s impression here was marked most emphatically.

Figures 3 and 4, Courtesy of NTV Plus Sport

Jude Bellingham was deployed with license in the LCM, able to stretch beyond in a pendulum with Harry Kane (Figure 4), but it was his relationship with Myles Lewis-Skelly that provided England impetus, thrust, and incision.

Figures 5 and 6, Courtesy of ITV Sport

Initially conservative in his positioning, Lewis-Skelly began to step higher, showcasing his proficiency in baiting, driving through pockets, and breaking lines. England’s left-hand-side started to revolve (Figure 5), but it was that high-low rotation between Bellingham and England’s left-back which not only adapted our structure for the first time but broke the deadlock (Figure 6). Other than a clear positional-play hegemony, this synchronisation of moves and countermoves is a clear ‘Tuchel-ism’.

Figure 7, Courtesy of NTV Plus Sport

In the second-half, Tuchel got tinkering (Figure 7), once again placing trust in Lewis-Skelly’s Arsenal-education, as Walker swung into a back-three, and the eighteen-year-old occupied more typical LCM zones, with Bellingham shifting to the tip of a diamond. It’s not just the fluidity, but its equilibrium that was most impressive, a theme of adapting to his squad’s differing personnel that Tuchel continued against Latvia (Figures 8 and 9).

Figures 8 and 9, Courtesy of ITV Sport

Lewis-Skelly pinched inside from left-back into a pivot with Rice, with Marc Guehi moving into LCB, Ezri Konsa falling at the heart, and Reece James the aggressor on the right. Once again, Bellingham was free to drop outside the block, or push into these high/central blind spots which Myles—splitting Latvia open in his punchy-pivot role—accessed maturely and reliably (Figure 10). This left Morgan Rodgers offset as the ‘right 10’, ready to receive and burst through that Latvian deep set-up.

Figure 10, Courtesy of ITV Sport

Despite this, Tuchel’s selection on the right-hand side proved astute. Rodgers and Jarrod Bowen could interchange as they saw fit, with James—able to add an extra body and dynamism on the overlap or deliver crosses from behind the block (Figure 11)—ready to do what he does best. The blueprint for Trent Alexander-Arnold is abundantly clear, of course. Tuchel deliberately isolated Marcus Rashford in the first-half—who probed and pursued—but couldn’t arrest himself from the touchline, where he became more of a ‘lock-picker’ than a ‘goal-getter’.

Figure 11, Courtesy of ITV Sport

Bowen and Rashford then switched wings to give some greater same-sided, strong-footed, by-line threat (which, in theory, provides greater access to an 18-yard-box Tuchel crowded with England’s physical, rangy bodies). The move for Kane’s finish was indirectly initiated in this fashion. James finds Rashford beyond, with Rodgers threatening inside with the carry, then electing to find a late and deep overload from Rice (who has genuine untapped potential attacking on the right), bursting beyond to set up the skipper (Figures 12 and 13).

Figures 12 and 13, Courtesy of ITV Sport

There is so much more to unpack, but let’s finish by tying up loose ends out-of-possession. The big positive was the variety, displaying England’s potential for both one of the most intense, committed, and organised 4-4-2 blocks on the circuit (Figure 14), as well as the potency of a more man-to-man-orientated schema (Figure 15).

Figures 14 and 15, Courtesy of NTV Plus Sport and ITV Sport

Tuchel is on board; his opening act promises renewal. The future signals a manager and group who want to be ‘the team to beat’.