Picking Our England XI vs Spain

The Rest Is Football

The episode features Gary Lineker, Micah Richards, and Alan Shearer analyzing England's upcoming match against Spain and evaluating Thomas T

Key takeaways

The hosts criticized Thomas Tuchel's dismissal of criticism regarding his substitutions in the Argentina game.
There is a consensus that players like Lewis Hall and Cole Palmer should have been more central to the previous squad discussions.

Main topics

England vs Spain preview
Thomas Tuchel's tactical decisions

Notable quotes

He was brought in to win the competition.

Conclusion

The episode provides a critical look at the tactical evolution of the

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:10) Hello and welcome to The Rest Is Football with Micah Richards, Alan Shearer and me, Gary Lineker. The international break is upon us and England have got a few games coming up, probably most notably against Spain, of course, the current world champions. Do you like international breaks or do you not like international breaks? Speaker 3 (0:32) Well, as a player or as a pundit? That was it. Speaker 1 (0:36) Either or, either Speaker 2 (0:37) or. As a player, yeah, I love the international breaks. As a pundit, I also love the international breaks because we don't do any live TV, so we can have a bit of time off. So, yeah, I do love them. I was really interested in some of Tuchel's comments over the last few days. So, Chas? Well, when he said about 99.9 % of people just want to talk about Mexico and Croatia and whatever, they don't want to talk about substitutions in the Argentina game, and I'm thinking, hmm. I'm not sure that's the case. Speaker 1 (1:07) Yeah, I thought that was a complete nonsense. I mean, absolutely everyone was talking about that at the time and everyone had their question marks about his substitutions and then to just dismiss it. And no, it was just the only thing that people remember a couple of goals against Croatia and that great game against Mexico. But yeah, I thought Speaker 3 (1:30) that was a bit odd. He's trying to deflect, isn't he? He knows full well. He was brought in to win the competition. What are we even talking about here? It's Speaker 1 (1:40) not easy though. Speaker 3 (1:41) But we're talking about the situation as his comments. So he's done exactly what we want him to, you know, what he knows we're all going to do. I think the Mexico game was amazing. It really was. And it was one of the best, especially in my lifetime, for the boys to go to Azteca and do what they did. So he's right. But on the other hand, he was brought in to win the World Cup, wasn't he? As simple as that. And it wasn't just the formation. It was took off Gordon, didn't he? And then brought on the defender. It wasn't just that. It was the belief of the players. So we could talk about systems all we want, can't we? And I like to delve, as we all do, like into the systems and the tactics and all that sort of stuff. But also... No matter what players you have on the pitch, even when we was under the cosh, the whole team was back no matter what players you got there. His job is, regardless of the system, is to push the team up the field anyway. You know what I mean? Regardless if you're going up five at the back, regardless if you're going with windows or whatnot, if you're too deep, you're too deep. And we were too deep. So we can pick it at the system and the tactics, but... His job should have been, guys, we're way too deep here. You know, as simple as that. It's not as simple as that, of course, because in the moment and the pressure and all those sort of things. But we all know he was too deep as a team, regardless what players he had on the field at the time. Speaker 2 (3:14) Yeah. And with the personnel changes that he's brought into the squad, guys. I mean, Lewis Hall, for example. Yeah. He should have been in the squad anyway. Looking at his performances this season, absolutely. I know he's back in there, but... But he should have been. He's one of them that without doubt should have been in the squad and was an error from what I thought. Speaker 1 (3:34) Looking at the squad and the fact that he's basically brought in most of the players that we all thought should have been in the World Cup squad. So obviously Lewis Hall, Cole Palmer, in particular those two. And you can also obviously add Alexander-Arnold. So overall, was that sort of an admission that he got it wrong or not? Speaker 2 (3:59) Look at the right back. I mean, with what's happened, Rhys James injury, Liveramento was in, but is now injured. He pulled out last Saturday's game. Palmer out injured it, I know, but was named in the squad. We'll speak about him more, I guess, in a minute. But yeah, I think part of that, there's a small part that says, yeah, I could have done things differently. He's brought in Trent and Trent's not played loads and loads of minutes, has he? No, he's not played that many. In terms of other options, if Spence is out injured, James is out injured, Liveramento injured. So, yeah, I guess he had to bring him back, no? Speaker 1 (4:36) Let's take a look at the original squad Thomas Tuchel picked. So we've got Pickford, Trafford and Steele, the three goalkeepers. Defenders, Alexander-Arnold, Branthwaite, Chalaba, Gay, Hall, Konsa, Liveramento. O'Reilly and Kwanzaa. Midfielders, you've got Anderson, Bellingham, Lewis Skelly, Mainu, Palmer, Rice, Scott. And then up front, Calvert-Lewin has started the season well. Eza, Gordon, Kane, N'Gamoa, Rashford, Rodgers and Saka. I like it. I like it. Speaker 2 (5:08) Yeah, I think it's more balanced, actually. Speaker 3 (5:10) Agreed. It's way more balanced. It's more fresh. They've got legs. I like the Rio and Gamoa shout. I really like that. I like the Alex Scott shout. Alex Scott, Speaker 2 (5:19) absolutely. Yeah, Speaker 3 (5:20) I've been saying that for the last year. He was my, a year ago, he was my wild card to make the, to crash a squad. I got it a little bit late, but we all know what he can do. I think, yeah, I think it looks really good. Speaker 1 (5:32) Konza's playing well. I think this is the squad that he didn't pick for the World Cup, obviously, because he had this strange thing that he just wanted to rely on 14, 15 players, which he said himself publicly on a number of occasions. And I think with hindsight, he'll realise that that was probably an error. It's his first major tournament. I understand why he did that. But anyone who's played in tournaments knows that the team that you start with... is very rarely ends up being the one that you finish with in a