England manager Thomas Tuchel and Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly (Photo by Justin Setterfield, Getty Images)
Last week, England head coach Thomas Tuchel announced his first squad for the upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia. There has been most discussions following this, with some people in disagreement with the choices made by the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager.
Dan Burn and Myles Lewis-Skelly were among the players to earn their first call-up, while there were recalls for the likes of Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford. Morgan Gibbs-White was also chosen by Tuchel, albeit that decision came a couple of days after the initial squad was revealed by the FA.
Collymore reacts to controversial England call-up decisions
In his exclusive CaughtOffside column, Stan Collymore has given his thoughts on some of the more interesting decisions made by Thomas Tuchel in regards to his first England squad.
“I have no problems with Dan Burn being called up to the England squad. His form for Newcastle has been very good for a while, and it is a great story for him, winning the Carabao Cup on Sunday before getting his first call-up. Myles Lewis-Skelly is another that I have no problems with – if he is going to be the future for Arsenal and England. However, I think that if he was someone that played for a team in the lower half of the Premier League, and he had the same sample size of matches as he has had, I’m not so sure that he would not be in the squad.
“We need to start rewarding players that play well regardless of the team that they play for in the Premier League, and that is a massive argument with the Nottingham Forest boys. For me, Morgan Gibbs-White was undoubtedly only brought in to the England squad as a late call-up because of the media attention that his omission received. I like to think that I have a voice as much as any of the other big voices when it comes to England and English football, and I am certainly someone that reacted when I saw that there were no Forest players included in the squad. Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson and Callum Hudson-Odoi all deserved to be called up, they have all played every week for a team that are third in the Premier League.”
“I think questions have to be asked about who is watching matches. There was already a story that Tuchel has not come over to watch many games, and now the call-ups will start to create a narrative that he does not watch players, and that his scouting system is not working as it should be.”
