Thomas Tuchel says Jude Bellingham faces serious competition for a place in England’s starting line-up at the World Cup, with the manager insisting he has “14 or 15 potential starters” in his squad.
The Real Madrid midfielder has started only four matches since Tuchel replaced Gareth Southgate as England manager in January 2025, while also making three appearances from the bench.
Tuchel has regularly turned to Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers, who has featured in 12 of his 13 matches in charge. Rogers was also the only player involved in all eight of England’s World Cup qualifying matches.
Asked whether Bellingham had a fight on his hands to make the starting XI, Tuchel said: “Yes, he has.
“He is one of the starters, he knows he is one of the starters, but we have 14 or 15 potential starters.
“These roles can always change, but at the moment I think there are 14 or 15 proper starters and Jude is one of them.”
Bellingham was a key figure for England at Euro 2024, starting all seven matches and missing just 29 minutes of the tournament. However, his role has become less certain under Tuchel.
The 22-year-old missed two qualifiers last September with a shoulder injury and was then left out of October’s international camp, including the qualifier against Latvia. He returned to the squad in November but missed March’s friendlies because of a persistent hamstring problem.
Bellingham’s relationship with Tuchel has also attracted attention. The England manager previously described his on-field behaviour during last June’s defeat by Senegal as “repulsive”, a comment he later apologised for.
Tuchel also said in November that he would “review” Bellingham’s behaviour after the midfielder’s reaction to being substituted during a qualifier against Albania.
However, the German was encouraged by Bellingham’s performance in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against New Zealand in Tampa. Bellingham came on at half-time in England’s 1-0 win and took the captain’s armband.
“You can see Jude has for sure the decisiveness and bite,” Tuchel said. “This is his key characteristic, but you can see that he comes from an injury and is full of energy and happy to be back on the pitch.
“He had his break, unfortunately, in a decisive part of the season, the Champions League season and campaign for the championship in Spain, so this was very unfortunate for Real Madrid and for him personally.
“But you can see now that he is actually in a sweet spot. He comes back, he’s fresh, he wants to play and he’s in top shape.”
England will hope Bellingham’s return to fitness gives Tuchel another major option as competition for places intensifies ahead of the World Cup.
