England likes to moan. Think back to Euro 2024. Luke Shaw’s name was mentioned more in punditry, commentary and articles surrounding the tournament than some of the starting eleven, including his replacement Kieran Trippier. Not only had it been three months since his last competitive match, he had managed a total of only 12 games in the entirety of the 2023/24 season due to injury. Yet all anyone could focus on was one thing: When will Shaw be back? The answer, inevitably, was in the final. Things quickly fell apart.
Manager Gareth Southgate, always one to favour certain players, seemed to have played Shaw for two reasons; one for loyalty, the other because he was all anyone could talk about. Whether England won or lost, he must have felt there was some kind of mutiny on the cards if Shaw did not make at least a cameo appearance. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the second of Luke Shaw’s Euros finals did not cover him in glory, his reaction to the Spanish winner best summarising his performance. As the ball found the back of the net and goalscorer Mikel Oyarzabal wheeled away in celebration, Shaw looked towards the linesman, flapping his arms despondently in a gesture which offered a simple sentiment. It said: “Why am I here?” and it was difficult not to agree with him.
Shaw’s appearance in that Euro final acts as one of the better examples of a national FOMO common in England fans. It’s not a mentality of ‘that could have been us’. It’s more ‘that should have been us’, a statement they could honestly print on England shirts as a national mantra. Like the ‘It’s Coming Home’ mentality, it is essential as an England fan to moan about how we’ve been robbed. To us, every other country is performing outrageously. Do they not know we invented this beautiful game? They should just lay down and die, letting us win everything, preventing us from feeling the suffering we have become so accustomed to.
However, even worse than other countries refusing to lay down and die is our own self sabotage. The absences of Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham from the past international break falls under this now traditional banner of ‘should-haves’ we are obsessed with. Does Tuchel not know these are the best players we’ve got? Well, we’ve heard that one before. Let’s not forget, we’re the nation who threw a 16 year old Theo Walcott into the squad because he was ‘so good’ for an Arsenal side he had never played for.
So, let’s break this down.
The trio of Grealish, Bellingham and Foden undeniably screams star power and star power can be enough to win you a tournament. It’s been proven. Look at Argentina in 2022. Look at Spain in 2024. Going further back, look at Brazil in 2014. Their failure to reach the World Cup Final came in the one game their star man Neymar Jr was injured for. An evident pattern of star players aiding their teams victory has therefore developed over the years. England’s fate without their star players has been poor, causing Tuchel’s move to be a stroke of genius when considering the nation’s recent fortunes.
Despite a plethora of talent, the star men for England are at this moment absent, and without them, the fate of the squad could be severely in question in the approaching World Cup. Certain issues still remain unaddressed. Without Harry Kane, who’s scoring the goals? Should we really be persisting with Jordan Pickford considering Dean Henderson’s recent form? Why is Jordan Henderson still in the squad? The focus of fan fervour however currently rests on the ‘requirement’ of having at least one of the three absent stars in the squad if not all three. But an image springs to mind. It is of Jude Bellingham mouthing the words “Who else?” after his late overhead kick against Slovakia in Euro 2024. With those words, Bellingham’s arrogance may have sealed his own fate. “Who else?” is an incredibly relevant question.
The three players in question are luxuries most teams can only dream of but, ultimately, there are too many of them for England. A star man might win you a tournament but it’s the team that will get you where you need to go, a point PSG have proven tirelessly over the last year. Without the team what hope is there? Remember how Brazil fell apart in 2014 without Neymar? England have faced the same issue time and time again. The luxury players may score goals to deliver finals, two arising over the last five years, but they have not stepped up so far to deliver trophies, a dynamic which needs to change.
It is perhaps because of this that Tuchel has felt it necessary to leave out the trio of star men. It is not about those players looking good in flashes. It is instead about the team looking consistently good, dominating matches with an attacking mindset which allows them to progress comfortably through tournaments without an over reliance on key individuals. When the time is right and the team is prepared, one or two of those luxury players will inevitably slot back into the fold but Tuchel’s responsibility as manager feels devoid of those luxuries for now. He has to create a team which can manage without them.
Essentially, the lack of Grealish, Foden and Bellingham should be praised. When they return to the team they should find one much stronger than they previously played in, one which allows them to display the full extent of their considerable talents. Argentina’s 2022 World Cup was masterful from a team perspective. Due to their fast paced displays of attacking prowess, star man Lionel Messi found himself in a dreamland from where he could produce some of his finest moments on a football pitch. That was all because of the team. This is the exact mentality England require now to win their first trophy in nearly sixty years.
There will always be Jude Bellinghams and Jack Grealishs but what England need is a single entity rather than a collection of individuals. This seems to be what Tuchel is set on delivering: a group we can get behind, one we arguably have not had since Euro 2021. It is time for us to stop focusing on what we should have and instead on what we do have. Elliot Anderson, Morgan Gibbs-White, Declan Rice, Anthony Gordon and an in-form Marcus Rashford, one of the deadliest weapons in football, act as but a few of the exciting prospects Tuchel is lining up for his upcoming World Cup side.
The talent is there in abundance even if certain instances of it are left out. Rather than “that should have been us” we can start thinking that that is us. We have the potential for the perfect team. Even Wales manager Craig Bellamy keeps on trying to tell us we’re absolutely stacked with talent. Once we start playing as a collective, we’re going to be just fine.
