Thomas Tuchel says both Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold have points to prove on their return to the England squad and has challenged the duo to prove their value on the pitch.
Tuchel named his 27-man squad for the forthcoming Nations League matches on Friday with 10 players included who didn’t make the final group for the World Cup. Among those 10 were Chelsea’s Palmer and Real Madrid’s Alexander-Arnold. The latter has been included as a right-back, while Palmer is one of two No.10s in the group.
“Cole has his numbers back, his assists back and decisive goals back,” Tuchel said. “He has a point to prove. The same goes to Trent. They need to come to camp, be the best version of themselves.”
When asked what he wants to see from Alexander-Arnold, Tuchel answered: “Perform, perform. That’s just what it is. He was not with us in the World Cup. We trusted other players. I stick with this decision. It’s time to fight for this place, he has something to prove. We have a long camp. I’m sure he will show up.”
He added: “It is one thing to be nominated and getting your ticket back into the squad and it’s another thing to perform for England. The players need to step up now that they’re back in the squad, and perform and keep their place in the squad.”
Alex Scott is included after making an impressive start to the season at Bournemouth, while Rio Ngumoha is also named having been included as one of three players in Tuchel’s pre World Cup camp.
“Scott is a fantastic football player, a fantastic character — one of the best midfielders in the Premier League and deserves to be with us and for his qualities,” Tuchel said.
“We had three players in prep camp with us — Scott, Rio [Ngumoha] and Josh [King]. All three of them were fantastic members of the squad. They’re excellent characters but showed quality and courage and curiosity on the pitch. Josh had a fantastic start to the season with Fulham and was close, but I thought we keep the squad tight. He was very close.”
Jarrad Branthwaite is also named, as are Jason Steele, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Lewis Hall and Myles Lewis-Skelly. But there are several players missing who were named in the World Cup squad — Reece James, Dan Burn, Jordan Henderson, Dean Henderson, John Stones and Djed Spence are absent through injury, while Noni Madueke, Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney are excluded.
“The door is always open through performance and then through behaviour, commitment to the team spirit,” Tuchel said. “We built something very special [at the World Cup]. First, before we did the nomination in the last month [for the squad] I thought we’d have more of a continuation.
“But then a lot of members of the World Cup can’t be with us through injuries. It’s not a full continuation; other players will step up. Those players were crucial for us in building the brotherhood and taking care of the mentality which took us a long way to the tournament.
“We will not negotiate [or] compromise on that. Other players will step up and get a lot of minutes. My mindset is not to change too much in the formations in the match but be reliable and to not overload the players. The door is always open to impress.”
England face Spain and Czechia at Wembley and face trips to Czechia and Croatia over the next international break as they start their Nations League campaign. Tuchel has challenged the team to win their group.
“It’s an amazing start to the Nations League campaign,” Tuchel said. “We had fantastic and positive results in last 18 months, immaculate qualifying campaign. We had eight wins, one draw and one defeat in America. The one loss hurt a lot and still does.
“This cycle of 10 matches is something we want to repeat. If we go all the way to the final four [of the Nations League], we want to have 10 matches to create another cycle. We started the next cycle with the [bronze medal] match against France. The next match [against Spain on Sept. 26] is against the reigning world champions. We feel the gap is closing and the motivation cannot be higher against the world champions.”
