Record goalscorer Kane’s England place was one of the biggest talking points of the summer. But any discussion of evolving away from the Bayern striker has disappeared with the appointment of his former boss Tuchel and Kane’s 10 Champions League and 21 Bundesliga goals this season.
Unusually for this squad, form and fitness means England’s usual array of attacking talent is partly reduced.
Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish are all out of form, Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke are injured. They are competing with Anthony Gordon, Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers who are all having good periods. Could Aston Villa’s Marcus Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, get a surprise recall?
In terms of formation, Tuchel has used both the 4-2-3-1 formation and a variation of 3-4-2-1, which he implemented at Chelsea in an impressively short amount of time for Champions League glory.
His sides can be described as pragmatic with an extremely high level of detail put onto each player. Not afraid of a direct style, his Bayern side knocked Arsenal out of last season’s Champions League maximising long diagonal balls into pacey wingers for one v one situations.
The biggest clue as to whether Tuchel will play three at the back will be if six centre-backs options are chosen to cover the two games, rather than four or five, including versatile players like White. Another hint would be the inclusion of Crystal Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell, who is playing as left wing-back under Oliver Glasner.
