Thomas Tuchel has warned Jude Bellingham that the Real Madrid midfielder faces a fight to earn a place in England’s starting line-up at the World Cup.
Bellingham is back in Tuchel’s squad for their final World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Albania this week after being left out of the last international gathering in October.
The 22-year-old had just returned from shoulder surgery when Tuchel opted against selecting him for the Wales and Latvia matches last month, allowing Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers to shine in the number 10 role for England.
Rogers’ impressive performances have presented Tuchel with an intriguing dilemma as he looks ahead to next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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“Rather than finding a position for the best players to have them on the field, it is maybe better to put everyone in their best position and have a competition,” Tuchel told reporters on Wednesday when asked if he would try to fit both players into his team.
“At the moment the competition is between the two of them. They are friends so it is a friendly competition.
“They don’t have to be enemies and hate each other. They are respectful and they fight for the same position.
“Can they play together? Yes, but in a different structure and now is not the moment to change the structure.”
Bellingham’s return comes after Tuchel was forced to apologise earlier this season for claiming his mother found some of the playmaker’s on-pitch antics “repulsive”.
The standards are clear
Tuchel, who also recalled Phil Foden after he was left out of the previous three England squads, insisted Bellingham and the Manchester City forward both seem happy to be back in the fold.
But he made it clear that England’s strong performances without Bellingham and Foden showed they are not guaranteed to waltz back into his side.
“It has been good to have him (Bellingham) back. There has been a good atmosphere in the last two days and everyone is happy to be in camp,” Tuchel said.
“It is always nice to have Phil around, he is a nice guy and like Jude, he is part of this squad and happy to be together.
“I expect what they show. Be straightaway part of the group and why should it be awkward for them? We were driving the levels and standards without them.
“We are obliged to drive our own standards and build what we can build. Now they are back and it is their responsibility to contribute to this and it is what they are doing. The standards are clear.”
Group K winners England secured their World Cup berth with a 5-0 rout of Latvia in October.
Tuchel has won seven of his eight matches, including six World Cup qualifiers without conceding a single goal.
After hosting Serbia on Thursday and travelling to Albania on Sunday, Tuchel has only two friendlies remaining in March before he has to name his World Cup squad.
Regardless of who makes it into his group for the tournament, the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss is pleased with the unity he has managed to create in less than a year in charge.
“What we are trying is to build a strong bond, to build an energy, a team, a brotherhood that everybody wants to join and to also build a competition that everybody knows that if they pull out in the wrong moment, the door can be closed because someone else will take their place,” he said.
“It is not as a threat but the other way around. We are absolutely on the way. Everybody wanted to be part of the camp. Everybody was desperate to come.
“It is an energy that feeds itself and this at the moment is the place where we are.”