Thomas Tuchel brings English football to England

The Premier League finally has a national side

Hey, I know this one is a whole lot less timely than it would’ve been last week, but here it is lol. Now to get onto writing the next newsletter which, unless something absolutely huge happens, will definitely be about Kevin De Bruyne.

Two comfortable wins against Albania and Latvia without much excitement is very much business as usual for England. To most watching, this felt exactly like watching the Three Lions in any qualifying games over the last 20 years. But under the hood, in some ways it could not have been more different.

Thomas Tuchel came in with a very clear mandate: aim to win the World Cup. He’s been pretty clear that everything he does is towards that goal. As such, the aim is to build foundations for a side that will be ready in North America come June 2026. This isn’t novel. England and other sides usually spend qualifying campaigns trying out things and fine-tuning tactics for when it’s going to matter. But it feels different this time. Let’s talk about how.