- 28 minutes ago
180926_tuchel_england_nationsleague_squad_announcement
18/09/2026
Wembley Stadium
18/09/2026
Wembley Stadium
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:01I'm here. Yeah, sure.
00:05Okay, good morning everyone. Welcome to Wembley Stadium for this media conference to unveil
00:10the England squad for the fourth coming UEFA Nations League fixtures. As ever, we can keep
00:15it to initially two questions per person. If we do have time, we'll come back round
00:19to you. And obviously, raise your hand if you do have a question. We'll start with Carve.
00:24So, Thomas Carve Solichol from Sky Sports News. First of all, first of all, Trent Alexander,
00:31Arnold, Cole Palmer back in your squad. What have they done to get back into your good books?
00:39Well, they had a good start to the season. They did never something wrong. We just chose
00:44different players. So now is a new competition. Some players, some positions have more injuries,
00:52some have less injuries. But Cole has his starts that he always had. But he has his numbers
00:58back. He has assists back. He has decisive goals back. So that's why he's in the squad.
01:04And I think he has a point to prove. And the same goes for Trent. He was never off the
01:09list.
01:09He was never non-selectable for us. And it's his chance to show, come to camp, be the best
01:18version of himself. He had a good start in two positions for Real Madrid. And he comes
01:25as a right-back for us.
01:27Just on Trent, you don't seem to fully trust him to be the England right-back. What does
01:34he need to do over the next few weeks to prove to you that he deserves to be the England
01:39number
01:39two?
01:40I'm confirmed. That's just what it is. It's a competition. And I understand your question.
01:44Because he was not with us at the World Cup. We trusted other players. I still stick with
01:52this decision. And it's now time to fight for his place. He always said he's up for a fight.
01:57He always said he's up to fight for his place, especially for England. So it's on him to prove.
02:04And he's more than welcome in camp. We have a long camp. I'm sure he will show up.
02:10Hi, Thomas. As Covey said, we call Trent, we call Palmer, we call Louis Skelly. Does
02:18that, and I'm sure there are others as well, but does that prove that under you that the
02:24road is never closed, that the door is always open?
02:28Yeah, 100%. The door is always open. The door is always open first and foremost through performance.
02:34And then on the same level through behaviour and commitment to the team's spirit, because
02:41we built something very special. First, before we did the nomination in the last month, I
02:49thought we have more of a continuation of the World Cup squad. But then a lot of members
02:56of our World Cup squad can't be with us due to injuries. So it is not like a full continuation.
03:11We have to, like new players will step up because these players were crucial, crucial for us in
03:17building the brotherhood, in building the spirit and taking care of the mentality that took us the long
03:26way in the tournament. And we will not negotiate on that. We will not give in on that and compromise
03:31on that. So other players will step up. This is basically how I see this camp. Other players
03:37will step up. Players will step up and get a lot of minutes. So my mindset at the moment is
03:45not to change too much within the formations, within the match, if possible, but be also,
03:52of course, reliable. And of course, if it doesn't make sense to play the players too much, we
04:00will not overload them. And coming back to your questions, the door is always open and the
04:06door is always open to impress and the door is always open to take the place.
04:10Can I ask a quick question on maybe players who were close to the squad but weren't named,
04:15the likes of maybe Josh King? I know Ben White as well. He's got an injury.
04:20Ben pulled out with an injury. He had a fantastic start with Arsenal to the season and was back
04:28to his very best on the side as a pair, especially with Bukayo Saka, which could be very valuable
04:34for us to have two players on the side. But he was unfortunately not available for the World
04:39Cup and is not available now. It is unfortunately a little bit of a story with Ben that in the
04:46decisive moments or in the moments when we do the call-ups, he's not available. Nice that you
04:52mentioned Josh King because we had three players in prep camp with us in the US, Alex Scott, Rio and
05:01Josh.
05:02All three of them were fantastic members of the squad, not only because they were nice, nice and reliable
05:10and excellent characters but they showed the quality and their courage and their curiosity on the pitch,
05:20which was very nice to see. Josh especially had a fantastic start to the season with Fulham. It was very,
05:27very close, but in the end I felt like we keep the squad tight and give the players that come
05:34into camp,
05:34let's say on Josh's position, on the number 10 position with Cole and with Jude, so they have our trust.
05:43Josh is therefore with under-21s, but he was very close and is on the radar.
05:49Thomas, Kerry Brown, B in sports. You finished the World Cup, the highest finish for England in 60 years,
05:56but you've talked about the pain, the scars of the exit in the semi-final to Argentina. What a way
06:01then to come up against the actual world champions. What do you want to show to England fans in this
06:07game?
06:08I think it's an amazing start to the Nations League campaign. Overall in the 18 months we had some
06:17fantastic and positive results. We had an immaculate qualifying campaign and then we had two friendlies
06:24and eight World Cup matches, which means ten matches in the US. We had eight victories, one draw and
06:31unfortunately one loss, that hurt a lot and still does. But this cycle of ten matches is something that we
06:42want to repeat.
06:44If the target is to go all the way now in Nations League, if we go all the way to
06:50the final four we have
06:51another ten matches, so six matches are safe in Nations League, but we want to make it ten matches
06:56to create another cycle. It feels to me that we started almost the next campaign and the next cycle
07:07and the next period with a match against France because we lost against Argentina. We were kind of
07:16out of the tournament, but we were not out because there was a bronze medal match to play. The way
07:22we
07:22played it and the way we won it and we won it against maybe the strongest team at the moment,
07:28the strongest squad
07:30in the world against France. So very difficult, very impressive win and I think that
07:39directs the narrative for what's coming. The next match is now straight away against Spain,
07:45the reigning world champions again and we feel the gap is closing and we feel that we are close
07:51and we want to prove a point. The stadium is sold out, it will be very exciting and the motivation
07:56cannot be higher. We play against the world champions. And also the motivation of being
08:00one of the co-hosts of the next European Championship. What's your message to the players to get over that
08:06pain and transfer that passion into this next campaign? Are they hungry for it now? I think by pure nature
08:14of the
08:14first match they will be hungry to prove a point. That will not be the problem. I'm still working on
08:21my
08:21messaging because my feelings are also mixed to be very honest, still a bit mixed. It's still a bit
08:28ambiguous, say the word, because I think they are very very positive things to take away from qualifying
08:35from the tournament itself and to acknowledge that but at the same time it was unfulfilled.
08:45I think it's important to recognise the record that we have as a federation, the record that we have in
08:51the last 10 years arriving in semi-finals, quarter-finals, winning a bronze medal for the first time in 60
08:58years. So it is important to recognise that and acknowledge at the same time that we didn't push it
09:05over the line. You know, if ambition is so high and we arrived with the highest ambition in the US,
09:16the disappointment is on the same level, is also very high. And the downside, we did not even only
09:23arrive ambitious but we created belief through the qualifying, through the friendlies, through our
09:31matches, we created belief within the squad, they created belief with the fans in the country. The
09:40downside of not only being ambitious but having the full belief that we can go and win it, it hurts
09:47even more if you don't make it. So this is where we are but I think coming back to the
09:53positives, we built
09:54this brotherhood and we had a fantastic spirit and the team showed this never-give-in mentality and we will
10:01not compromise on that. I think a very pure example of it was that we maxed out every single game.
10:09There's
10:09maybe a slight downside in it that we are maybe not the most economical team to play football but
10:17this is maybe also a characteristic of Premier League. Premier League is not a very economical league.
10:24You need to max out every single match otherwise you cannot compete for the title so this is
10:30something more beautiful. But this is where we are, where I am in my mindset and I think where the
10:37players are so it's still a bit ambiguous and it is nice to have a new competition, it is nice
10:43to have
10:43the world champions in our home as guests because that makes it I think easier for all of us to
10:49move
10:49forward and do not forget what I said, I think the way we played against France and the way how
10:55we beat
10:56France and that we actually bounced straight back after this defeat against Argentina I think sets
11:04the tone and sets the direction and the direction in sports is always forward never backwards.
11:10Amy Lewis, ITV News, when you joined England you said that your target was for England to get a second
11:18star on the England shirt. Is that still your target and if it does obviously it would take you beyond
11:22your current contract with England? No, not at the moment because you only get a star for a world
11:28championship and my contract is until the Euros so at the moment the target is to finish the cycle of
11:35the Nations League, try to win it, go to the final four and try to win it and build on
11:42what we have. I
11:43feel that it's not a new beginning that we are starting now so we build on a solid and very
11:49valuable
11:49foundation and the target is to win the home Euros of course.
11:55Looking back, obviously as you've touched upon there, there were real successes to take from the World Cup
12:01but if we look specifically at the last game, what have you learned from that? Have you had sleepless nights?
12:08And looking at the squad announcement today and sort of Arnold, Trent and Cole, is this your
12:16admission that perhaps you would have liked them there at the World Cup?
12:22No, I was very happy with the squad selection. We put a lot of effort and emphasis into the squad
12:29selection
12:30and I had a lot of sleepless nights but I had not one sleepless night about our selection
12:35because I was more than seven weeks with this group of players and they were nothing but fantastic.
12:41And I think the spirit that we built and the mentality that we showed brought us to the place
12:47that we got. I said before, it feels unfulfilled. But yeah, that's how it is.
13:00Of course, we need to move forward the decisions in the Argentina game and sometimes as a coach,
13:07you can only win if you win. So now we know the result and we didn't win and of course
13:12I reflect and of
13:13course I'm a very critic with myself. But the question that is also still lingering around is like,
13:23who knows? Who knows? Who knows what would have happened? Who knows if we hadn't made any substitutions?
13:27What would have happened? And would we have the same sleepless nights? So it's not much sense in
13:35torturing ourselves. Looking back, it's moving forward what the team, like I said, brilliantly did.
13:42And I will not allow to determine 30 minutes of this World Cup to overwrite how we view our achievement.
13:58Hi, Thomas. Kobe Mainu is in the squad again after not featuring in the summer. Do you expect him
14:05to get on the pitch across these four games? Yes, I expect him to be on the pitch and it's
14:09my duty to put him
14:10on the pitch. That was totally on me. He didn't put a foot wrong in the World Cup. He was
14:16class in behaviour
14:17and on the training pitch. It was a big competition. We played then also Reesy in centre midfield.
14:25Elliot Anderson is fantastic for us. Declan Rice is a very unique player. So we trusted them more than we
14:33trusted Kobe. It was difficult for him. It was on me. He got injured before the France game.
14:39So we could not even give him minutes there, which hurt me. Maybe he was more hurt than me,
14:46but it was my responsibility and it's my responsibility to reward him for that.
14:51You mentioned earlier that Cole Palmer has got his numbers back and that's one of the reasons that he's
14:56in the squad. A player who didn't make the squad who's got a lot of numbers in 2026 is Morgan
15:01Gibbs-White.
15:02How close was he to making the squad this time? Close, but it's always the same. It makes no sense
15:07to nominate three, four, five, number tens. It just does not help anyone. We can see the form that
15:16Morgan is in and he ended the season very, very strongly and was the key player for Forrest to
15:25not be relegated. We can see him stepping up now. It is one thing to be nominated, by the way,
15:34like with Cole and getting your ticket back in the squad, but it's another thing to perform for England.
15:39And this also counts. So especially also Cole needs to step up when he comes and needs to show these
15:46kind of numbers and these kind of performances to get his place, to keep his shirt and to justify the
15:55nomination.
15:57Hi, Rob Harrison, Sky News. I'm sure you must have encountered fans maybe since the summer. Have they
16:02been celebrating third? Have they been trying to tell you they would do things differently? And what
16:07happened in your meetings with your bosses here at the FA? Did you discuss about changing things
16:12going forward in any way? Got told off, of course, for the substitutions that I made.
16:18Just joking. We had several reviews, which is good to do, which is a bit unusual to do because you
16:25don't have the time in club football to do so many reviews, but it's a part of moving forward and
16:30it's a
16:31part to learn. It's sometimes painful, sometimes emotional, sometimes beautiful because people speak
16:38up and then they speak about situations, about moments that you had not so high on your priority list
16:45that meant the world to them. So it's beautiful. I can just tell you very honestly that I felt the
16:55full
16:55support from all my bosses through the World Cup, through the whole tournament. There was a moment,
17:01a very special moment before the Mexico game where we had a talk and my bosses told me we know
17:06that
17:06anything can happen in a football match and we know that anything can happen in a match in Mexico,
17:12in a World Cup match, but don't worry. We see what's going on and we want to continue like this.
17:17This was a
17:17beautiful moment for me as a coach and I felt this kind of freedom to take my choices and to
17:29just
17:29coach freely and there was never a doubt in my mind that we will continue together and there was
17:35obviously never a doubt in their mind. We have critical reviews that will stay of course behind
17:41closed doors. I am the biggest critic of myself and reflection is sometimes necessary to get better
17:51and experience is a crucial part of coaching. So this is where we are. Was there another half
17:59question in there? Part of this is about your fans who might have included you again?
18:02Fans. I tell you something like 99.9% of the fans don't speak about substitutions, tactical twists
18:10and tactical things. They speak about where they have watched the Mexico game, they speak about the
18:17second half, the energy of the Croatia match, they speak about how nerve-wracking it was to watch our
18:26match against Congo and where they celebrated. This is the feedback that I get and it's 99.9% and
18:32I think
18:33this is what we created and this is what we can and this is how it should be. This is
18:39what a World Cup
18:40is for to connect with the people and to give them experiences that they will not forget and this is
18:47the feedback that I get and it makes me proud, makes me happy because we share even if it's just
18:54in the
18:55cab or in the coffee place or in the supermarket. You share these little moments and you understand
19:01that it actually meant something and that what the players spilled was transmitted and this is what
19:11we want to build on. You've got four matches, it's probably the longest ever international break away
19:16from a tournament. Managers are often not part of these sorts of decision-making processes and this
19:21summer there's been a lot of focus on how football is run, particularly at FIFA. Here at the FA, complaints
19:26to
19:27FIFA about the World Cup sell-off, even the Balogun red card and integrity on the pitch. Do you back
19:34the FA's position about there needing to be change of leadership at FIFA and for Managers to be more
19:39involved? I just told you how I am backed from my bosses so it's the minimum I can do is
19:45back my bosses.
19:47They have my full support on that and I back their opinion and I'm grateful that I can talk about
19:55football because that's my little bit of knowledge that I have is about football and not about sport
20:04politics. Henry. Hi Thomas. Trent, Cole Palmer and Scott are very inventive purposeful passers. We saw
20:13that with Scott's assists last night. Is that something you want to bring in in this new cycle? Is it
20:18also
20:19something you think that England actually lacked a bit in the World Cup? Thank you.
20:29Yeah, we want to bring in their quality. We want to see them again. We want to give them the
20:34chance
20:34to perform. I think for Scott, especially maybe to speak a bit more in detail about Scott,
20:43Alex is a fantastic football player, fantastic character, so humble. I think he is one of the
20:51very best midfielders at the moment in the Premier League so he deserves to be with us and of course
20:57for his qualities for sure. The quality of Trent is undisputable. The quality of Cole Palmer, we don't
21:05need to talk about it but they need to show it. What I don't want to go into is like
21:11you can't be a winner
21:13of the World Cup if you haven't been selected. This would be for me not logic. If now players who
21:21are
21:22not selected who didn't make the squad are now the winners of 30 minutes against Argentina. No,
21:29this doesn't work like that, for sure not. There are steps to be taken. The first step is to be
21:36nominated,
21:36the second step is to fight and perform on the highest level for that shirt and then from there we
21:43go.
21:44Just on Trent, you say as a right-back, can he play midfield as well? He comes as a right
21:50-back.
21:50He comes as a right-back? Yes.
21:53Hi Thomas, are you planning to make any adjustments to the team's style of play? I remember you've said you
21:59want your team to reflect the Premier League but you've also mentioned that your team needs to
22:03control games more. How do you want to balance that? That would be the wish and sometimes I think,
22:09is this us? That would be the wish and that we become for 10 minutes a little bit more like
22:15Spain
22:17here and there but the more I reflect on it, it's maybe more buying into our strengths and play more
22:25minutes like we played the second half against Croatia, playing more minutes like we played the first
22:31half against France and buying into these strengths because I think we get a lot of value out of it,
22:37we get a lot of connection to the fans. This is what the Premier League reflects but football is about
22:44adapting to situations and football without any control is sometimes hard to digest for a coach.
22:54if you look at the 6-4 against France but people talk about it like it's one of their nicest
23:01experiences
23:03ever to watch a football match so maybe I have to compromise in my wish and my urge for control,
23:12for a little bit of more chaos, embrace the chaos and maybe it brings out the best. We will adjust
23:17our
23:17style but always to put the strengths of the players on the first priority.
23:26One more question if I may, was the pain that you felt after the semi-final actually any different
23:31from the one that you felt after losing the Champions League final back in 2020 and did the experience
23:36from 2020 help you to overcome the disappointment and come back stronger because obviously in 2021 you
23:42won the Champions League. It helps you in terms that it's not the first time that you get a scar,
23:54it's not the first time that you have sleepless nights, it's not the first time that you...
23:59It sounds a bit masochistic but it's also the beauty of it, it's also the beauty of high-level sports.
24:07You can't always win and it makes you feel alive and not in a very nice way but still
24:14I mean still you feel that pain of these high-pressure moments. It feels different. The whole campaign,
24:21the whole tournament felt different. As soon as you enter knockout football is a new level of pressure,
24:30I have the feeling. It is comparable with a final in the Champions League but it's only round of 32
24:36so
24:37you have like some finals after another because the Champions League are two matches in the build-up,
24:44you always can correct something, you always can adapt and things happen, you have a bit longer time.
24:49Knockout football in one match can be very, very demanding and brutal. So I think the experience
24:56unfortunately of losing finals helps because it's just what makes me me and you know how that this is
25:07possible and the possible outcome. But knowing that you have to wait for years is maybe like, yeah,
25:15this was maybe the beauty of the beauty and the pain of having the match for the bronze medal was
25:24not to have the abrupt end.
25:25Because I talked to other coaches and who went out of the tournament before us
25:31and their biggest pain is actually that it ends with a whistle and
25:39some hours later they're sitting alone in the hotel because players are gone, leaving
25:44on their planes, cars and leaving and they're basically alone and a lot of us, we are used to
25:52have this pain but overcome the pain together, find the solution for in three days if it's not the last
25:58match of the season and do it better and overcome it. It's part of therapy, it's part of our therapy,
26:04it's part of our medicine and we had this medicine and I think it helped us and helped me massively
26:10to live with it. Last question. Hi Thomas, I'm Karim from BCom. Pleasure to meet you.
26:15I wanted to ask specifically about a player not on your squad, that's Levi Colwell.
26:20He's started some games for Xabi Alonso this season. How have you seen his sort of performances this season?
26:25And is it a matter of him still needing to get back to his best after his injury?
26:30I think it's very close. I think I have a very clear picture of what Levi can give
26:37to his team and to us and about his strengths. I wanted just to take the opportunity to give Jarrod
26:43a chance. Jarrod was injured, Jarrod Branswood was injured several times when we had a chance to call
26:49him up. Now he had a very good start with Everton, he is also a left-footed player so it
26:55was just a
26:5751% decision for Jarrod because I don't have a clear picture of what he is all about and I
27:04have a very clear
27:04picture of what Levi can bring us. Okay, we're in there. Thank you very much.
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