Jude Bellingham has a fight on his hands to feature in England’s starting line-up at the World Cup, manager Thomas Tuchel admitted, as the squad’s heavy reliance on Harry Kane’s goals emerged as a deepening concern at the tournament’s doorstep.
Tuchel, who took over from Gareth Southgate in January 2025, has started the Real Madrid midfielder just four times in 13 matches. Morgan Rogers of Aston Villa, by contrast, featured in every one of England’s eight World Cup qualifiers and has played in 12 of 13 matches under the German.
“Jude Bellingham faces fight for World Cup start as Thomas Tuchel warns of intense competition and Harry Kane's goal burden looms”
“Yes, he has,” Tuchel told reporters when asked if Bellingham must fight for his place. “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’s relationship with Tuchel has been strained. The manager described his on-field behaviour during last June’s defeat by Senegal as “repulsive” – a remark later apologised for – and promised to “review” his conduct after a substitution reaction against Albania in November.
Yet in Saturday’s 1-0 World Cup warm-up win over New Zealand in Tampa, the 22-year-old impressed. Taking the captain’s armband after coming on at half-time, Bellingham struck what Tuchel called a “sweet spot”.
“You can see Jude has for sure the decisiveness and bite,” Tuchel said. “He comes from an injury and is full of energy and happy to be back on the pitch. He’s fresh, he wants to play and he’s in top shape.”
Kane, however, remains the irreplaceable figure. England’s record scorer with 79 goals in 113 caps, the Bayern Munich striker finished his season with 61 goals in all competitions. But Tuchel faces a stark problem: Kane has 12 more goals than the rest of the squad combined. Ollie Watkins has six goals in 21 caps, Ivan Toney one in eight, Marcus Rashford 18 in 71, Bukayo Saka 14 in 38.
“Career numbers? Yes I know,” Tuchel said when asked about the supporting cast’s output. He admitted finishing was “not good enough” in the New Zealand match but insisted he is not worried: “We will be strong in set-pieces and when the spaces open up a little more against teams who will actually want to beat us, we will be good.”
To compound the narrative, Arsenal’s Declan Rice has been confirmed as England’s vice-captain for the World Cup, according to reports. England open their campaign against Croatia on June 17.