Thomas Tuchel has been chosen as the man to succeed Gareth Southgate as England coach and lead the Three Lions to FIFA World Cup 26™. The German becomes only the third foreign coach to take the job, following Swedish boss Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello.
With Tuchel set to take charge of his first games as head coach next March in UEFA World Cup qualifying, we take a look at what England fans expect from the their new boss.
Tactically flexible
Over the course of a 15-year coaching career, Tuchel has adopted a number of different systems and starting formations to best suit the tools at his disposal.
He was thrust into the Mainz hotseat in 2009 after leading their U-19 side to the first league title in the club’s history. There, he largely utilised a four-man defence with a diamond midfield, but also experimented with a 5-2-2-1 shape. His journey across his homeland continued at Borussia Dortmund, where his side played a 4-1-4-1 which evolved into a 3-5-2 in his second season.
After leaving Germany to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2018, his new side dazzled domestically in an attack-minded 4-2-4, before reaching a maiden UEFA Champions League final the next season in a 4-3-3. A year later, he lifted the trophy as Chelsea boss after building a rock-solid 3-4-3 shape.
Tuchel has also previously chosen to inherit the system the side were using before his arrival and slightly tweak it to suit his style of play. England have most recently deployed a 4-3-3, which suggests they could start their World Cup qualifying campaign in a similar shape.
Getting the best out of his players
Heiner Schuhmann, who coached Tuchel in the Augsburg youth sides, said that even as a youngster he was “exacting and demanding”. That drive for perfection has continued into the dugout, and has helped Tuchel get the best out of the players he’s worked with – especially strikers.
During his time at Mainz, Shinji Okazaki hit a record 15 league goals in 2013/14. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang can also attribute his own annus mirabilis to time with Tuchel, netting 31 Bundesliga strikes in 2016/17.
Kylian Mbappe scoring a record 33 goals in 2018/19 under him at PSG, which coincided with Neymar enjoying perhaps his best post-Barcelona football to date. In 65 games with Tuchel as boss, the Brazil icon bagged a combined 77 goals and assists.
Most relatable for England fans is his record with captain Harry Kane. In their only season together at Bayern Munich last term, Kane managed 36 league strikes in just 32 games, averaging a goal every 79 minutes. Both statistics are personal bests for the forward. Among players to play at least 2,000 minutes for a manager in Bundesliga history, only Robert Lewandowski under Hansi Flick has a better minutes per goal ratio.
Two number 10s
In previous jobs, Tuchel has opted to deploy two number 10s – or a winger brought inside when in possession – behind a lone striker. At Dortmund, it was Gonzalo Castro and Ilkay Gundogan tasked with supporting Aubameyang. When Chelsea won the Champions League in 2021, Timo Werner and Mason Mount operated behind Kai Havertz. Last season, Leroy Sane and Jamal Musiala supported Harry Kane.
While England are blessed with a catalogue of options in almost every position, one area where the Three Lions are particularly stacked with talent is in the number 10 position. Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham and James Maddison, to name but a few, are all highly-effective there, and Tuchel’s job will be getting as many of those difference-makers on the field at once.
Goals galore
Tuchel’s sides have typically scored plenty of goals. His PSG team, which secured back-to-back titles, was by far his most potent. In 127 matches in charge, Les Parisiens recorded a staggering 348 goals – an average of 2.74 per game – while hitting at least five in a match some 14 times.
The French giants aren’t the only team he’s managed to have scoring at a rate of more than two a game. His Borussia Dortmund team, while not league winners until his control, still recorded 2.42 goals per game. At Bayern Munich, his 61 games in charge yielded 142 goals, averaging out at 2.32 goals per game.
An instant impact
After signing an 18-month contract with England, which will see Tuchel through the qualifying campaign for World Cup 26 and the event itself should the nation reach it, FA CEO Mark Bullingham said the German has a “single-minded focus” on winning the tournament.
Tuchel has a history of making an instant impact in his previous roles. After being parachuted in at newly-promoted Mainz ahead of the 2009/10 Bundesliga season, he took them to ninth. The next year, he led the club to fifth with a record 58 points, and a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round – their first-ever continental qualification by league position. In his next post, he lifted Dortmund from seventh to second in his debut campaign with a 32-point increase.
His appointment at Chelsea, meanwhile, sparked a remarkable upturn in fortunes for the Stamford Bridge club. After replacing Frank Lampard in January 2021, he established the Blues as a possession-heavy side which could dominate the opposition. They embarked on a 14-game unbeaten streak and just four months after taking the job, Chelsea were European champions for the first time in nine years after a final victory over Manchester City.
By the end of 2021, the German had added the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup™ to his collection, before being named as The Best FIFA Football Men’s Coach at that year’s The Best FIFA Football Awards.
