Three questions Thomas Tuchel must answer for England to win 2026 World Cup - including Newcastle dilemma

Two games, two wins – in truth, there really isn’t much more that Thomas Tuchel could have asked for over the course of his first two matches in charge of England. But while we’ll learn much more about the new-look Three Lions when they face tougher opposition, the games against Albania and Latvia still highlighted some issues which need to be resolved.

Many of them are hangovers from the Gareth Southgate era, which is perhaps understandable given that Tuchel has had just one training camp during which he can impart his ideas and methods – but there are at least three key questions that the new England manager must answer if he wants to win the 2026 World Cup in North America:

How can England get the best out of Jude Bellingham?

Jude Bellingham is, unquestionably, one of the best players in the world, as his stunning slide-rule pass into Myles Lewis-Skelly for the opener against Albania aptly demonstrated. But Tuchel was still right to call him out for his lack of discipline ahead of the 3-0 win over Latvia.

Admittedly, he didn’t mean his discipline in terms of committing fouls, although Bellingham was very lucky not to see red on Monday evening after smashing through the back of a Latvian defender after having been booked. Tuchel meant Bellingham’s positional discipline.

“He is always ready to give everything but we need to help him so that within a structure he can play more economically and still have the same impact,” said Tuchel after beating Albania, adding that Bellingham should “play a little more disciplined maybe, to save some energy for the decisive moments.”

In other words, Bellingham needs to stop trying to play the hero, rushing around everywhere trying to create something from nothing, and stick to his position a little more rigorously. Bellingham, perhaps, is better used as a ‘moments’ player, a difference-maker in the box, rather than as the chief orchestrator.

Either way, England need to get the best out of Bellingham to stand a chance of emerging victorious from next summer’s World Cup, and they need to work out who’s doing the playmaking. Given the way he performed over the last two games, there’s an argument that Declan Rice, who set up both of Harry Kane’s goals, may be better suited to the job.

Who should play on the left wing - and what’s to be done with Phil Foden?

Just as important as getting the shape right in the centre is working out who should play wide left – a question that we don’t seem to be much closer to answering after this weekend’s wins. On the right, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke are all options. On the left, however, we have slightly thinner gruel.

Not that Anthony Gordon isn’t a fine player, but he isn’t as productive in the final third for club or country as a Saka typically is. Eberechi Eze, likewise, showed an impressive burst of directness to force the third and final goal against Latvia, but has ultimately bagged just two goals in 22 Premier League games this season.

And while it’s a pleasure to see Marcus Rashford playing with a little bit of joie de vivre again, he hasn’t quite found his final touch and passed up a few good chances to get a dangerous ball into the box. There are levels, and England’s players on the left – at the moment at least – operate at a lower one than those playing through the middle or down the right.

It doesn’t help that Tuchel is now the third England manager, permanent or interim, to fail to get a tune out of Phil Foden. In any sane world, he would be the world-class option down the left wing, but for some obscure reason his unquestionable quality in the domestic game doesn’t translate when he’s wearing white at Wembley.

If Tuchel can crack the code and get Foden playing to anything like his best – admittedly something he isn’t managing for Manchester City either right now – then perhaps this won’t be a problem. But as it is we saw an Aston Villa loanee, a Crystal Palace man and a Newcastle forward get a go down the left over two games, with none of them offering a decisive answer to the quandary.

Should Newcastle’s Dan Burn really play in defence?

We saw a new-look back four across the two games, partly due to injuries – both Harry Maguire and John Stones were unavailable, as of course were Trent Alexander-Arnold, Lewis Hall and Luke Shaw – but partly because Tuchel appears to value different qualities in his defenders.

Dan Burn and Ezri Konsa made an unusual pairing – a gigantic physical presence with limited technical aptitude, and a more nimble player who is statistically the best one-on-one defender in the Premier League. In the end, Konsa kept his place, largely after cleaning up multiple messes Burn left when he tried to deal with Armando Broja one-on-one.

That brought Marc Guéhi, the outstanding defender of the last year or so of Southgate’s reign, back into the fold, but he endured an unusually scrappy evening, nearly gifting an opening goal to Latvia after a mix-up with Jordan Pickford.

With Maguire and Stones getting older and less healthy, Tuchel needs to work out who to play at the back. Does he need the presence of Burn, the positional instincts of Guéhi? Perhaps Levi Colwill, an immense talent having a modest season, or young Jarell Quansah? He won’t have too many more chances to experiment before the World Cup squad has to be named, and perhaps far too few games against high-quality opposition with which to make a reasonable determination.

Then there’s the right-back spot. Likely, that belongs to Alexander-Arnold when the Liverpool (for now) man is available, but can Kyle Walker still do a job even as his pace declines? Is Reece James the man when fit and available? He can hit a mean free-kick, as it turns out, but 90 minutes against Latvia’s finest wasn’t much of a test of his all-round game.

England won’t play another match for three months, and when they reconvene in June their opponents will be Andorra and Senegal. That friendly against one of Africa’s best sides may end up doing a lot of heavy lifting in terms of giving Tuchel a chance to see how his system operates under pressure from a decent team – but either way, he doesn’t have much time to answer several burning questions. Getting them right could be the difference between ending 60 years of hurt or coming home with their tail between their legs once more.