Tuchel leaves Cole Palmer out of England squad for Nations League games
Cole Palmer will not play for England this month. Manager Thomas Tuchel has left the Chelsea forward out of his squad for the November Nations League games, saying Palmer "misses too many chances to impress" (BBC Sport).
The Nations League is a competition between national teams in Europe. England play Croatia at Wembley on 12 November and Spain in Madrid on 15 November. Palmer, who is 24, was not in the squad named for either game.
Tuchel explained the decision in simple terms. "We have enough number 10s and we stick to the guys who were in the previous camp," he said. A number 10 is the attacking midfielder who plays just behind the front players, and Palmer usually operates in that space.
There are two first call-ups. Fulham's Josh King and Borussia Dortmund's Jobe Bellingham have been named for the first time. Jobe is 21 and joins his older brother, Jude Bellingham, in the England set-up. Tuchel said he wants to see King on both wings, the wide attacking positions on either side of the pitch, and said King can play all four attacking roles.
Some players are missing through injury. Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka, 25, is out with a quadriceps injury, a strain to the large muscle at the front of the thigh, which he picked up against Bayern Munich. Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott, 23, was not selected after an injury against Croatia in October. Marcus Rashford is out with a hip problem, and Tino Livramento is missing with a knee injury.
The goalkeepers are Jordan Pickford, Jason Steele and James Trafford. The defenders are Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jarrad Branthwaite, Marc Guehi, Lewis Hall, Ezri Konsa, Jarell Quansah, Djed Spence and Ben White. The midfielders are Elliot Anderson, Jobe Bellingham, Jude Bellingham, James Garner, Josh King, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Declan Rice.
Up front, the forwards are Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Eberechi Eze, Morgan Gibbs-White, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane, Rio Ngumoha and Morgan Rogers. Ngumoha and Rogers are among the younger names in that group, and Kane remains the senior striker in the list.
Palmer's omission is the headline, but it also says something about how Tuchel is building his squad. He has made clear he prefers to keep faith with players from the last camp, and the two newcomers fit that pattern of selecting players who can cover several roles. England's two games will show whether that approach works on the pitch. Wembley on 12 November comes first.
