Thomas Tuchel explains reasons behind Cole Palmer and Phil Foden omissions
Neither player made the World Cup squad with Tuchel saying competition for places made it a difficult decision to exclude them
Thomas Tuchel rasied a few eyebrows with the selections for his 26-man England squad to take to the World Cup and there are plenty of big-name players who have been excluded. Manchester United’s Harry Maguire was ‘shocked’ and ‘gutted’ about missing out on one of the places for defence but there were surprises in midfield too as neither Manchester City’s Phil Foden nor Chelsea’s Cole Palmer were included in the squad. Despite both players possessing incredible talent, neither has had a fantastic season nor performed to the height of their abilities were called up into Tuchel’s camps.
The England boss explained that a need to have a balanced squad was the primary reason for excluded them both with Morgan Rogers and Jude Bellingham preferred in the No. 10 position and specialists wingers being chosen for the wide areas. During his press conference following the squad announcement, Tuchel was asked if he felt any fear in leaving players of Foden and Palmer’s quality behind.
He replied: “No, I don’t fear because I am very confident in the group that we chose of which we arrive with. Of telling the players they had missed out the England boss added: “Very difficult decisions, painful conversations. Difficult for the players, difficult to explain to the players.
What we’re trying to achieve as a team and we try to nominate a balanced squad. If everyone is selected, it was a given that from these 55 players, we have to leave some extraordinary talents, some extraordinary personalities at home. Phil Foden and Cole Palmer will not play at the World Cup this summer (Getty) "Either way, if we picked all those names, some other big five names would have been out and we would be talking about these names.