Thomas Tuchel has urged his England substitutes to channel any frustration at being left out of the starting lineup into making a decisive impact from the bench, insisting that the team which wins the World Cup will be defined by the productivity of its replacements.
The head coach is already planning for the stifling temperatures expected at next summer's finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada, and believes effective use of substitutes will be crucial. In Thursday's 2-0 win over Serbia at Wembley, Tuchel made bold selection calls, including starting Morgan Rogers in the No 10 role and leaving Jude Bellingham on the bench alongside Phil Foden. Both made an impact after coming on in the 65th minute, combining to set up fellow substitute Eberechi Eze for the second goal.
Tuchel is focused on building a strong team spirit, or 'brotherhood', and will not tolerate sulking. 'You can be angry at the coach, you can be angry at the situation,' he said. 'But if you see the nations that win, see the clubs that win the Champions League, then the bench is on their feet. For the last eight to 10 minutes, there is no one sat there thinking: “I should be on the field, why am I not there?”' He recalled his Chelsea side's Champions League triumph in 2021 as an example of a bench that was 'non-stop, everyone was pushing and fighting'.
When asked if England could win the World Cup without goals from substitutes, Tuchel replied: 'One hundred per cent. We need a good bench. We play in 40 degrees and we will play after a long, long season. We are maybe the nation that suffers the most from international football, from long seasons, two cups, cup finals, semi-finals. We need to be ready to do substitutions until hopefully the late stages of the World Cup.'
Tuchel also revealed he is considering using the half-time interval as an additional substitution window, noting that under Fifa regulations, teams are allowed up to five changes during regulation time spread across three windows, but half-time does not count. 'We have to maybe worship even the extra slot we have at half-time,' he said. 'We maybe can have one or two changes at half-time.'
The manager admitted he hates having to leave players out of the matchday squad, as he did with new call-up Alex Scott against Serbia, but believes players will accept their roles if they are clearly defined. 'They will never be happy, they don't have to be happy because no one is used to sitting on the bench,' he said. 'But I strongly believe they will accept it. We need to have the roles clear.' On Bellingham, Tuchel said the Real Madrid midfielder took his exclusion 'with no problem at all' and is pushing to start against Albania in Tirana on Sunday.
