Thomas Tuchel stood amid the hurly-burly outside the changing rooms at the Rajko Mitic Stadium. Now and again, his words were drowned out by the steady grate of wheels on tarmac as grim-faced Serbia players marched past, dragging suitcases. Tuchel, though, was carrying no baggage.
In fact, he was shedding it. He allowed himself a wry smile when he was told of the national panic that swept the country when David Beckham contracted an injury that threatened to rule him out of the 2002 World Cup and the repeat collective trauma when Wayne Rooney was a doubt for the 2006 tournament in Germany.
England‘s stunning 5-0 victory in Belgrade was the best evidence so far that Tuchel is fast moving away from a mentality where the England team and its supporters are psychologically dependent on the presence of so-called star players as the countdown to next summer’s World Cup begins.
In the past, England managers have paid lip-service to the idea of competition for places and then stuck with the biggest names anyway. Reputations have been indulged, sometimes at the expense of balance in the side. Managers have been unwilling to upset stars by leaving them out. Tuchel appears set on a different approach.
After the way they played on Tuesday night, the selfless way they worked for each other, the skill they showed, the confidence and the fortitude with which they performed, why would Tuchel even think about dropping outstanding players like Morgan Rogers, Noni Madueke and Elliot Anderson anyway? They are the players in possession now.
Neither Jude Bellingham, nor Cole Palmer, nor Phil Foden, nor Bukayo Saka played against Serbia and not only did Tuchel refuse to give guarantees they would win their places back when they were fit, he took another barely-disguised swipe at a toxic attitude he believes had been allowed to take hold in the side and which he is determined to eradicate.
Thomas Tuchel is fast moving away from a mentality where the England team are psychologically dependent on the presence of so-called star players
The likes of Jude Bellingham missed the game and has not been guaranteed his place back
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‘What pleased me the most about the performance,’ Tuchel said, ‘was the teamwork, the effort we put in to help each other out, the intensity. 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. We didn’t concede a shot on target. We didn’t allow any big chances. We need to do the little things right. I felt that the team was ready and I am just very happy that they proved it.
Tuchel did not mention him by name but the references to ‘eyeballing’, ‘frustration’ and ‘attitude after a mistake’ will be interpreted by many as thinly-veiled criticism of Bellingham’s antics on the pitch in some recent appearances for the national team.
The idea that Bellingham would not walk straight back into the side is inconceivable to most but not to Tuchel. If the Real Madrid midfielder wants to play in the number 10 role, he has competition from Palmer, Foden, Ebereche Eze and, not least, from Rogers.
Rogers was the man-of-the-match against Serbia and he was also the very epitome of the attitude and the work-rate and the team ethic that Tuchel craves. Rogers is also brimming with infectious enthusiasm. He is the kind of personality who would be a prime asset in a travelling party.
‘I probably haven’t quite done it on an international level before tonight,’ Rogers said, ‘but I think it was my time. I’m happy how I did. I’m happy how well the team did, it made it so much easier for me to just be me and and the manager allowed me to show my strengths.
‘It makes it really easy to play with players like this. So, 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.’
The victory over Serbia may come to be seen as a turning point in Tuchel’s reign. It was a gift for him. It changed things. It vindicated his policy of trusting relatively untried players and shunning the star system.
Tuchel did not mention him by name but the references to ‘eyeballing’, ‘frustration’ and ‘attitude after a mistake’ will be interpreted to have been aimed at him
At every opportunity, Tuchel is hammering home the message that the team must come first and that players will have to park their egos at the door when they join up with his England squad.
The idea that Bellingham or Palmer or other star players might dictate to Tuchel has gone now. Tuchel will dictate to them. Would he be brave enough to leave big names out when they were fit again, he was asked.
‘I am always brave,’ Tuchel said. ‘You know that. But I don’t talk now about hypothetical names that can be left out. Let’s see who’s fit and available. I think we took some brave decisions already.
‘This is a team sport. Tonight was team work in its purest form. These players I chose tonight have the quality to play for us and the hunger to play for their country and everyone gets his chance.
‘If a big player misses out on a tournament, we need to have solutions, if he misses a camp, we need to have solutions. We have to focus on the guys who are available and who are ready to be the best versions of themselves and the best teammate possible and this is what we did.’
The emphatic nature of England’s win, which left them seven points clear of Albania at the top of Group K, means that qualification for the World Cup is now close to a formality and could even be confirmed if they beat Latvia in Riga next month.
That prospect concentrated Tuchel’s mind on the reason he took the England job in the first place and prompted a bout of nostalgia about World Cups of the past and the part England played in his memories.
‘In 1990, I was watching like crazy,’ Tuchel said. ‘I was Chris Waddle with the collar up in my garden, and I was Paul Gascoigne, and I was all these kinds of guys.
Tuchel has promised to be ‘brave’, which we could result in him leaving out the likes of Cole Palmer in future
He also said than in 1990, with no internet, he was watching England and pretended to be Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne in his garden
‘I was 16 then and there was no internet, there was no online focusing, there was just this book that you always got from the Euros and from the World Cup, and I always got it as a present, either for my birthday or for Christmas.
‘We had these books and all the photos from every match of a World Cup, I watched these things for four years, I knew every player, I looked at their shoes and their style and this was something magical.
‘That’s why, if you know that from me, you know what it means to me to hopefully go to a World Cup, what it means to me to qualify and go with England, just a brilliant moment in my journey, I enjoy it a lot and I will give my very best.’
