Why Thomas Tuchel chose to leave Phil Foden out of England's World Cup squad
Thomas Tuchel's reason for not naming Phil Foden in his final England World Cup squad has been revealed.
Ahead of the World Cup officially kicking off in less than three weeks, England manager Tuchel has officially confirmed his 26-man squad for the competition.
For his first major competition as England boss, Tuchel had several surprise calls, with Tottenham Hotspur defender Djed Spence and Al Ahli striker Ivan Toney perhaps the most unexpected inclusions.
Of course, the inclusion of surprise names also means that there are several big players that have missed out on being a part of the England squad for the World Cup.
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Among them is Manchester City star Foden, who missed out following a disappointing season that saw him score just 10 goals across 49 appearances in all competitions.
Ahead of the announcement Foden, who has 49 senior caps for his country, was believed to be one of the players that Tuchel felt was surplus to requirement in his squad, and now we know exactly why.
According to The Sun, Tuchel decided to place an emphasis on selecting certain personalities that fit tournament football for his World Cup squad, and he felt that Foden did not meet this criteria.
Instead, the German has selected Morgan Rogers, Jude Bellingham, Eberechi Eze as his attacking midfielders, with Harry Kane, Toney, Ollie Watkins, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Gordon selected as forwards.
Thomas Tuchel explains Maguire, Foden, and Palmer absence
Alongside Foden, Manchester United's Harry Maguire, Chelsea star Cole Palmer, Newcastle United's Lewis Hall and Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White were the biggest names to have been left out of Tuchel's squad.
And speaking immediately after naming his squad, Tuchel explained exactly what lead to his selections and how he had informed those that didn't make the squad of his decision.
"Difficult phone calls. I respect all of them. As players, personalities. All of them have been in camp, have been excellent," Tuchel said.
“To reduce it was difficult, sometimes painfully difficult. Even in the phone calls I felt the emotion.
“I called all the players who were in camp with us at least one time. A lot of them deserved to be with us."
He added: “In the end we went back to the evidence we had - in Sep, Oct, Nov the leadership group and the team had very few changes in November... that felt we had a bit of fresh air, younger players who played with excitement, it was a good mix of young and old and brought the best out of the players.
“We want to recreate that spirit - that's why we rely heavily on the group that was with us in those three camps.
“For some it was a positional thing and not bring five No 10s and make them play out of position.”
Topics: Thomas Tuchel, Phil Foden, Football, England, FIFA World Cup
Ben McCrum