England’s Thomas Tuchel era is underway as the new Three Lions boss plots his team’s route to the 2026 World Cup, where he knows anything less than a deep run into the final stages will not be good enough.
England will - assuming they qualify - be one of the favourites for the tournament in North America next year, but Tuchel’s task is to avoid the near-misses that defined Gareth Southgate’s eight-year tenure as Three Lions boss.
Southgate’s record of reaching two European Championship finals, plus the semi-final and quarter-final of the World Cup are second only to Sir Alf Ramsey’s achievements for the men’s England team, so where will Tuchel be able to make a difference?
Where England manager Thomas Tuchel can make a difference
According to former England and Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole, the German - ranked at no.10 in FourFourTwo’s latest list of the world’s top 50 managers - can give England an edge when it comes to being reactive during games.
“It’s his in-game management for me,” Cole tells FourFourTwo, speaking in association with TNT Sports. “That ability to read the flow of a game and make an important change to turn the tide in your favour.
“He did that so many times when taking Chelsea to Champions League glory in 2021.
"Gareth was sometimes criticised for that – like against Croatia in 2018, when the game just ran away from us – and the FA have made a statement getting Tuchel, to redress that.
"Tuchel will be judged in big moments in the latter stages of tournaments. That’s his area of expertise.”
Cole also thinks that Tuchel will not look to reinvent England and will instead look to build on the work of his predecessor - and that could be enough to end a trophy wait that will have gone on for 60 years by the time next summer’s tournament rolls around.
“Tuchel’s smart and he will recognise, quite rightly, what a fantastic job Gareth did – the foundations he laid,” he adds.
“These lads have been to two finals in the last three major competitions. They know how to win matches.
“Tuchel just needs to come in and put the cherry on top. If he does that, there’ll be a statue of him in London.”
