Gary Lineker has declared that the best left-back in England has been left at home, as Thomas Tuchel prepares to lead the Three Lions into his first World Cup as manager. “I think the best left-back has not been picked: Lewis Hall,” Lineker said. The former England striker’s verdict lands just days before the tournament kicks off, and it cuts at the heart of a squad selection that has already raised eyebrows.
Hall, 21, was capped twice by Tuchel during March’s friendlies against Uruguay and Japan. Yet when the 26-man squad for the United States was announced, the Newcastle defender was out. Instead, Tuchel chose Tottenham’s Djed Spence, Hall’s clubmate Tino Livramento, and Manchester City’s Nico O’Reilly as his left‑back options. Luke Shaw was also ignored.
“Gary Lineker says Lewis Hall is the best left-back omitted from Tuchel's World Cup squad as the England manager's unlikely rise from bartender to boss continues.”
“Did he see Lewis Hall against Yamal? He didn’t give him a kick,” Lineker added on his podcast. “He’s been really unlucky.”
It is a striking early test for a manager whose own path to the England job began far from the tactical whiteboards he now commands. In the late 1990s, while Glenn Hoddle’s England kicked off the 1998 World Cup in France, Tuchel was working a student job at a bar in Stuttgart, throwing wild hip‑hop parties with some of Germany’s biggest rap stars. He had almost given up on football entirely. His playing career had been cut short by cartilage damage in his knees so severe that he could barely walk up stairs. An operation at 23 failed to save his career, and because his insurance did not cover the surgery, he was left strapped for cash.
Ralf Rangnick, then a coach at SSV Ulm where Tuchel had played under him, recalled the moment he intervened. “When I found out that he was working in a bar in Stuttgart to earn his living, I could hardly believe it,” Rangnick told the BBC. “I called him and I said, ‘what are you doing?’ … I brought him together with the academy director and that’s how his coaching career started.”
Rangnick had already earmarked Tuchel as a future coach at Ulm. “After a couple of weeks when you are a head coach you can always pretty precisely tell which players could become a coach,” he said. Tuchel later credited Rangnick with changing “the way I watched football on television.”
Now 52, Tuchel is bidding to become the first foreign manager to win the World Cup. He takes over a side that Lineker once called “s***” after a 1‑1 draw with Denmark at Euro 2024, a performance the former striker suggested was “tactically inept”. Tuchel’s own tactical obsession is well documented, but his first major squad decision has already invited criticism. With a tricky group stage ahead, the question is whether the man who went from pouring drinks in Stuttgart to pacing the England technical area can silence his doubters on the biggest stage.