Thomas Tuchel will tell striker Harry Kane to stop dropping so deep during matches – and that he must be able to keep up with the demanding level of high pressing expected to keep his place.
The new England manager, announcing his first squad in the job, had no hesitation in letting Kane retain the captaincy, but revealed he will speak with the 31-year-old – who he worked with at Bayern Munich – about how to maximise his output.
Kane, England’s all-time leading scorer, has maintained his phenomenal scoring rate since moving to Bayern Munich in 2023, but in recent times has drawn criticism.
In Germany, he has been criticised for not scoring enough against tougher opponents and had his work rate questioned.
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It followed accusations at last summer’s European Championship, where his three goals helped England reach the final, that he slowed the team down.
Tuchel plays with an aggressive high press that requires forwards to work exceptionally hard to pressure opponents on the ball.
“First of all, he contributes goals,” Tuchel said.
“That is what he does for years at the highest level. This is unique and this is what he built his career on. We have the highest expectations when we bring him in. He is our captain. Highest expectations means leadership, leadership in the group.
“He will maybe never be the most outspoken person, never be the most emotional leader out there on the pitch but in the group we have high expectations he has to live up to and of course, in terms of intensity in the game, pressing, closing down players, we will not take any exceptions of the rule.
“He has to live up to the highest level but I know Harry now as a top, top professional who does what is asked of him and he does it now with Bayern Munich. They play with a very high press – they almost man-mark.”
To get the best out of Kane in Tuchel’s system, the England manager will encourage the striker not to drop into central midfield.
“I saw him here for England dropping deeper and deeper in his game and this is maybe not exactly what we want with Harry,” he explained.
Kane and Tuchel together at Bayern (Photo: Getty)“When I worked with Harry we have laid out the plan for what we wanted for him and you can be sure he followed the plan and does what is needed so making him drop as a No 9 is not a problem but it should be not as a No 6 position.
“Dropping as a No 10, turning and shooting from range and delivering from outside the box is not a problem but then we need to make sure that around him is enough speed and high position to take advantage of the space.”
Tuchel’s key calls as he starts the process of building a squad in 18 months capable of winning the World Cup included a shock return for Jordan Henderson, an olive-branch extended to Marcus Rashford and handing Newcastle United’s 32-year-old defender Dan Burn a first call-up.
Tuchel revealed Henderson, who will be 36 by the time the World Cup begins, “will be a big part” of the “puzzle” building his squad, talking up his off-the-pitch qualities and how he will help the younger players.
He has been impressed by Rashford’s rejuvenation at Aston Villa, where he is rebuilding his career on loan from Manchester United, and explained he had called him up to build a relationship with the player and to make clear that he has made a good start but that he needs to continue on an upward trajectory.
Tuchel said he had opted for Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke ahead of Ivan Toney, but that he would not rule out picking a player playing in the Saudi Pro League.
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Toney has not been selected for an England camp since joining Al-Ahli.
“A very close decision but a sporting decision,” Tuchel insisted. “It had nothing to do with the fact he plays in Saudi Arabia or that we don’t trust the level of the league there.”
Meanwhile, Tuchel revealed he would not sing the national anthem until he felt he had earned the honour.
“You have a very powerful, emotion and meaningful national anthem, and I could not be more proud to be on the sideline and be in charge of the English national team,” he said. “It means everything. It means a lot to me, I can assure you. But I can feel because it is that meaningful and it is that emotional and it is so powerful the national anthem that I have to earn my right to sing it.
“I feel that it is not just a given. You cannot just sing it. That’s why I decided that I will not sing it in my first matches.
“I will earn it with results, with building a group, with doing my job properly and by creating a feeling where maybe even you guys say at some point, ‘Now it’s time that you sing it, it feels like you proper earn it and you’re a proper English guy now!’”
Tuchel’s track record
By James Gray, sports news correspondent
Kane is England’s record goal-scorer, with 69 in 103 caps, and has been captain of his country for nearly seven years. Removing that status would have been a bold and unnecessarily divisive move.
But Tuchel cannot merely give Kane the armband, wind him up and let him go. The centre-forward’s form at major tournaments has been the subject of significant scrutiny – and unlocking his best form will be high on the former Chelsea manager’s list of priorities.
Harry Kane’s heat map against Denmark. #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/7B4ET95c7b
— Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) June 20, 2024
In one particularly dire game against Serbia at Euro 2024, Kane only had two touches in the first half. In the second, he dropped deeper to try and get involved. England won 1-0, but their striker’s average second-half position was inside the centre-circle. The player who passed to him the most in that game? Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. It was a microcosm of Kane’s out-of-form spells for England.
The secret to how Tuchel will approach this problem can be found in his CV. Few managers have such an impressive list of previous appointments: Borussia Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea and Bayern Munich before replacing Gareth Southgate.
At each of those clubs, Tuchel has shown a tactical fluidity and flexibility to build a system around the talents within it.
“The attacking system is a framework that enables individuality to function,” Tuchel once said to describe his coaching.
“It is not rigid – but rather used as only a guidance.”
However, the areas that Tuchel tends to focus on are the No 10 positions, preferring to manufacture a situation where he can have two talented players operating in that space, in combination with a central striker and wide players.
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The likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Shinji Kagawa, Neymar and Angel di Maria all flourished there under his tutelage. Mason Mount enjoyed one of his best seasons playing there for Tuchel’s Chelsea.
But in the German manager’s last days at Bayern he did bemoan his side’s struggles to get the ball to Kane.
“We are dissatisfied with how we find and don’t find him [in games],” Tuchel told said in February last year.
“I have very rarely, perhaps never before, seen such a discrepancy between performances in training and matches, the way he scores, the way he leads the team, the way his team wins. It’s unbelievable. It’s absolutely world-class.”
A few days later, with Bayern facing the prospect of a trophyless season despite Kane’s 44 goals in 45 games, it was confirmed that Tuchel would leave the club at the end of the season.
Whether they set up in 3-4-2-1, 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, you would expect to see England in possession with Jude Bellingham and either Cole Palmer, Phil Foden or even Declan Rice as twin creative players, pulling the strings for England’s attack.
Tuchel has always believed in his plan. His tactical concentration has always been on the No 10 area and Kane fits into that.
His trademark, throughout his career, has been to upgrade players through coaching. When he took over from Jurgen Klopp at Dortmund, they had 10 per cent more possession and scored almost twice as many goals in his first season there.
In every season since taking the Dortmund job, his team have been first or second in their respective leagues for pressing and possession. That requires a pragmatic approach to “his system”, as well as an ability to work quickly with players.
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