Thomas Tuchel admitted holding ‘intense’ and ’emotional’ discussions and omitted players who deserved a call-up after announcing his squad for England’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers. The German, who takes charge of his first game on March 21 against Albania, named a 26-man roster which included a shock recall for Jordan Henderson and return of Marcus Rashford for the first time in two years. Dan Burn and Myles Lewis-Skelly are also in line to receive their first caps for the Three Lions. The former Chelsea boss, who took charge officially in January on an 18-month contract, gave some insight into the conversations that took place behind the scenes with his staff.
“We had some emotional debates, intense debates, very hard decisions,” Tuchel said at his first press conference since his unveiling. “Some are more obvious, others maybe a little bit more hidden but there are very, very close decisions. There are some players not in the squad who absolutely did enough and deserve to be in the squad. But it comes with the job, everyone talks about it and everyone has a strong opinion about it. That’s fair enough.”
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