Tuchel refuses to pander to England stars after emphatic win in Belgrade

Thomas Tuchel said he will not pander to the egos of England's biggest names after a second-string XI produced a 5-0 victory in Belgrade that reinforced his message about team discipline and competition for places.

Tuchel left out Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka for the Euro 2026 qualifying win over Serbia and instead entrusted players such as Morgan Rogers, Noni Madueke and Elliot Anderson. Rogers was named man of the match as England dominated and left the group leaders seven points clear of Albania.

"What pleased me the most about the performance was the teamwork, the effort we put in to help each other out, the intensity," Tuchel said after the game. "We never stopped running. There was no attitude after a mistake, there was no frustration, there was no waving, there was no eyeballing, there were no bad words. It was just a team ready to work and put 90 minutes effort in."

Tuchel refused to guarantee that established stars would automatically resume their places when fit, saying he had already "taken some brave decisions" and that he was "always brave." He added that the squad must provide solutions when key players are absent and that selection would favour those who demonstrate hunger and teamwork.

Rogers, who described the night as a turning point in his international career, said the manager had allowed him to "show my strengths" and praised the cohesion of the XI. "It makes it really easy to play with players like this," he said. "I'm really happy with how I played, and hopefully I can kick on now and get more opportunities like this, because it's a really special night."

Tuchel's comments echoed a long-running debate about whether England managers should prioritise reputations when selecting squads. He referenced past moments of national anxiety over injuries to marquee players, such as David Beckham in 2002 and Wayne Rooney in 2006, and said he wanted to move the team away from psychological dependence on individual stars as the World Cup approaches.

The emphatic nature of the victory leaves England on the verge of qualification: a win away to Latvia next month could confirm their place at the tournament. Tuchel said qualifying for a World Cup had personal resonance for him, recalling watching the 1990 tournament as a teenager and the players he admired then.

Tuchel did not name any player when he criticised behaviours he did not want in the squad, but his references to "eyeballing" and frustration after mistakes were widely taken as a rebuke to the on-field conduct of some senior individuals in recent appearances. The manager stressed that competition for attacking roles would be fierce, with several players capable of filling the number 10 position, and that selection would be based on form, fitness and team contribution.

England's performance in Belgrade underlined Tuchel's immediate aims: to establish a collective identity, enforce standards of behaviour and expand the pool of players who can be trusted in major tournaments. The result provided a clear validation of that approach while moving England closer to securing a place at the next World Cup.