A timely reminder that Myles Lewis-Skelly has come from nowhere to establish himself as an England starter. The Thomas Tuchel vision is taking shape.
‘Let’s get on with it and hope against hope that we don’t look like total idiots by March.’
The words, there, with which we launched the last F365 England Ladder after Lee Carsley’s third and final international break, just before we slotted Noni Madueke in at number f**king 10. That hope was always a forlorn one.
Funny thing is that we even said elsewhere in our heavily excuses-in-early opening monologue that it was worth remembering Thomas Tuchel was going to come in with a very short-term focus and thus we were going to assume he’d prioritise wise old heads over promising young bucks. And yet it still never crossed our minds to put Jordan Henderson in the top 50. Or Dan Burn, for that matter.
We’re going to cut ourselves a little more slack on Myles Lewis-Skelly given that at the time of the last Ladder update he had played a grand total of 15 minutes in the Premier League. Who the f**k was he?
Anyway, we do now have at least some idea of what Tuchel and his England side are going to be about – with far more Henderson than anyone expected, not just us – so hopefully this won’t look quite as off the mark by June as November’s does now. There is definitely less excuse if it does.
By all means give yourselves a good old laugh with the full majesty of November’s wrongness by clicking here, or simply content yourself with chortling along to some of the numbers in brackets below for the TL;DR version.
1) Harry Kane (2)
Okay, so we’re not off to too bad a start here, are we? Seems obvious now and was always obvious to be fair that Kane was likely to be a key beneficiary of the Tuchel appointment, but it was still a hugely welcome sight to see Kane looking far more mobile and far more involved in general play across these last two games than he did at either the Euros or during the Carsley interregnum.
Maybe he’s just closer to 100 per cent fitness now than he was then, but confirmation at the very least that he wasn’t on some terminal decline is a huge boost for Tuchel and England. And Kane himself, you’d imagine.
Clearly still the main man in England’s attack and now long odds-on to remain the first-choice No. 9 up to and including the World Cup, beyond which all bets are off for everyone anyway.
2) Jude Bellingham (1)
Very decent against Albania in the first game, but had one of those frustrated and frustrating evenings against Latvia where a couple of initial minor setbacks led to him trying to do absolutely everything all by himself all on his own all of the time up to and including ill-judged and poorly timed tackles in areas of the field where tackles really need not be occurring.
Could have had no complaints had he been sent rather than subbed off on Monday night, but let’s be real: he’s a huge part of Tuchel’s plans and would be a huge part of any right-thinking manager’s. But especially so when these early games have made it clear that against such limited opposition at least England will operate with a pair of 10s in possession. That is always going to be Jude plus one unless something enormously unexpected happens.
We cannot, though, shake the utter certainty from our heads that a huge Beckham-level major tournament red-card event exists in his future.
3) Declan Rice (1)
Not flawless against Latvia when his closest thing to a midfield colleague was an inverted Lewis-Skelly, but still pretty damn good, while his run into the box to set up Kane’s nerve-settler was another handy reminder that the man who is comfortably England’s best defensive midfielder is also so much more than that.
Like Kane and Bellingham and Pickford, an inked-in first XI name under Southgate and Carsley when fit with absolutely zero indication that is about to change under Tuchel. We can and will and do shuffle this top three around just to keep ourselves entertained, really. To all meaningful effect they are joint first.
Good corners, too. Sounds glib, but isn’t. Tuchel is unapologetic about emphasising traditional English strengths and big lads getting their big heads on big set-pieces is about as big and English as it gets. Rice’s set-piece prowess was weirdly underused by Southgate.
4) Jordan Pickford (5)
Bit of a moment with Marc Guehi at 0-0 against Latvia that might have been more costly had the chance it created fallen to a striker who had scored a goal of any kind since August, but remains largely unchallenged in England’s net and nobody really worries too much about that any more for a man behind only Peter Shilton in terms of caps in England’s goal. And unlike Shilton, Pickford can jump.
5) Bukayo Saka (4)
Injured and thus unavailable, which has been more of a vexation for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal than it was for Tuchel and England during a low-key interlull, but should be back for the Gunners’ run-in. While others had their moment in his absence here there’s no real valid reason to imagine Tuchel won’t be as big a fan of Saka as literally everyone else who has ever managed him.
6) Marc Guehi (7)
The communication breakdown with Pickford was a bit of a blip in an international break where centre-backs were never really going to get much chance to impress at their primary occupation, but we found ourselves surprisingly chill about a timeline where Tuchel tries to build a World Cup-winning team from a Guehi-Konsa foundation.
7) Myles Lewis-Skelly (NE)
We’re beating ourselves up about plenty of things we did and didn’t do in November, but we can live with our failure to have Lewis-Skelly in the top 50 on the back of what was at the time 15 minutes of Premier League football and only the very first seeds sown of his entertaining Haaland beef.
Now, though, it is clear he will be England’s left-back for the next 15 years. So that’s good.
We shouldn’t be drawing entirely firm conclusions based solely on how defenders fare against Albania and Latvia, but also we are going to do that. He’s just got it, hasn’t he? It’s obvious.
And the fact that even Tuchel, with his unashamed and entirely logical focus on the next 16 months, sees the 18-year-old as the best solution for a problem position right here and right now rather than it being a call with one eye on the longer-term makes it all the more impressive.
A first appearance on the Ladder, and a high-confidence call that it will not be the last.
8) Trent Alexander-Arnold (6)
Perhaps the most interesting and exciting of the unavailable bunch here. On the one hand, Tuchel trusted – and was rewarded for doing so – a player he knows unbelievably well at right-back in Reece James, but on the other the deployment of Lewis-Skelly as an inverted left-back-number-six double threat against Latvia is certainly something that should have caught TAA’s attention.
If Tuchel wants full-backs who are absurdly comfortable on the ball with a midfielder’s passing range, and we have to now assume that yes, he does want that, then a fully-fit Alexander-Arnold might finally have an international manager capable of getting as much out of his enormous talent as his club managers have. Which would be absolutely lovely, wouldn’t it? That’s a lot of Real Madrid players high on the ladder.
9) John Stones (8)
Does feel like Guehi and Ezri Konsa might need a bit of shifting, but everything we know about Tuchel’s very public and consistent focus on the short-term tells us that a fit John Stones is at the very least getting in the squad and we suspect still the starting XI.
Feels like a big summer coming up for Stones with regard to both his club and international careers. Because let’s not pretend he was a tree-pulling-up regular for City pre-injury. There has been a bit of tentative ‘back to Everton?’ chat and we absolutely don’t hate that for anyone involved given the recent improved mood around the Toffees.
10) Ezri Konsa (24)
Your Rashfords and your Lewis-Skellys might grab the headlines, but the low-key biggest winner of this week might be Konsa. Played the full 90 minutes of both matches and unlike his defensive partners Dan Burn and Guehi turned in a pair of quietly understated performances in which you barely noticed him.
In games against limited opposition, that is not only no criticism but active praise. These are the games in which going entirely unnoticed as a centre-back sits very much in the referee or wicketkeeper category of going entirely unnoticed.
11) Reece James (22)
If you will indulge us, we will be awarding ourselves two ego puff points for stopped-clocking this one correctly in amongst all the other catastrophic wreckage of November’s ladder.
He had no business being as high as 22 really. But we know what Tuchel thinks of James, we know the success they have had together before, and we knew that if he had any excuse at all to pick him he would do so.
James has been able to get himself on the pitch just enough with Chelsea to give Tuchel that excuse. He took it, and then so too did James with that stunning goal to break the deadlock against Latvia.
Interesting that, unlike Enzo Maresca at Chelsea, Tuchel gave James a far more traditional role and asked Lewis-Skelly on the other flank to take on inverted duties.
It all went so perfectly to plan, and we were just so delighted to see James back in an England shirt and performing so well, that we are even able to overlook the Utter Woke Nonsense of him doing so with the No. 3 on his back.
12) Kyle Walker (11)
At least we managed to avoid one frequent Ladder error among November’s wreckage insomuch as it was not one of the Ladders in which we declare Kyle Walker’s international career to surely now be a thing of the past.
That legendary recovery pace that seemed to be on the wane towards the end of his Man City days appears to have been rejuvenated by his move to Milan, and while it remains alarming to see just how frequently he manages to create scenarios in which he has to showcase that gift against even the most limited of opponents, that too is not exactly a new development.
Still provides experience and formation flexibility, and, while Tuchel may not be quite as partial to picking all the right-backs as Southgate was, it’s still hard to envisage him going voluntarily into what is now a very, very long eight-game major tournament without the undeniable pros about Walker that still just about outweigh the cons.
We also notice that we’ve got three right-backs in the top 12 here, which if nothing else shows just how thoroughly Southgate-pilled we’ve been by years of trying to get inside the great man’s head. Old habits die hard.
13) Ollie Watkins (9)
Nobody stole a march on him in this break with Kane playing the full 90 minutes in both games. Is now (even) further behind Kane than he was back in November, but staying ahead of any rivals for the back-up role is the name of the game for Watkins.
He’s had a mixed and often frustrating season, but if you’re going to miss an international break then watching your actual rivals for a squad place play precisely the same amount of football as you in that time is about the best you can hope for.
14) Anthony Gordon (12)
We suspect, based on Tuchel’s comments about Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden after the Albania win, that a fit Gordon would have started against Latvia. But having limped down the tunnel with a hip injury after his 15-minute cameo against Albania he was forced to pull out of the Latvia game to continue what has been a frustrating few weeks for a player still suspended anyway for Newcastle’s first game back after the break.
Rashford having a much better game against Latvia in what could so easily have been Gordon’s chance to impress only doubles the frustration, but he should still take heart from those Tuchel quotes.
“We hope for more impact in these positions. More dribbling and more aggressive runs towards the box. In general that was missing.”
Sounds like precisely the sort of impact in which Gordon specialises, and while Rashford undoubtedly emerges as a winner from this international break it certainly doesn’t feel like he or anyone else has absolutely nailed down that left-wing starting spot, while we assume as for now we must that a fit Saka has that honour on the right.
15) Cole Palmer (15)
The two-10s approach Tuchel adopted against Latvia should certainly grab Palmer’s attention given his obvious suitability to that role specifically, as well as his more general versatility across any number of attacking positions and match situations.
First priority remains getting himself fit, however, with then getting back into prime form a close second. Has a game against Spurs in a week, which if he can take care of the former should help massively with the latter.
16) Marcus Rashford (31)
A good example of how our brain so frequently betrays us with its relentless second-guessing and lack of faith is that in November we wrote this…
‘If Tuchel looks around the country in the search for international goals and tournament nous, he has few avenues open. Rashford is undoubtedly one of those few.’
…and then dropped him three places down the Ladder. That’s a clear and obvious error, and we are happy to correct it.
Didn’t, in truth, pull up vast quantities of trees in this break but he did play both games, did take on his manager’s comments after the first one and apply them in the second and is a very natural fit on the left-hand side for what Tuchel is trying to achieve here.
Feels like the biggest hurdle for Rashford was getting back in the fold. Having done so, it now feels unlikely he’s going anywhere. He’s going to be, at the very least, a squad staple through to the World Cup unless – and it’s not an entirely empty caveat, this – he contrives to end the summer in another situation where he won’t be playing much football.
17) Curtis Jones (18)
Really very good indeed against Albania and there are worse career moves than being really very good in the first game for a new manager in a position that remains up for grabs.
Slightly sub-optimal for him that England doing without a second orthodox central midfielder altogether worked out so well against Latvia, but that’s not a strategy Tuchel will be relying on against stronger opposition, one imagines, and Jones has done himself absolutely no harm at all this week.
18) Phil Foden (16)
It is becoming a problem, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how baffling and perplexing Foden’s international struggles may be, how sure it appears that at some point it must all click. The increasingly clear facts are that the struggles continue and the clicking remains as elusive as ever.
Has never really nailed down one of the assorted loosely-defined attacking roles around Kane and Tuchel is unlikely to have the patience of a Southgate given the timescales to which he’s working and the increasingly absurd array of alternative options.
READ MORE: Man City stars ‘worried’ about ‘underweight’ Foden as Bellingham ‘frustration’ revealed
19) Kobbie Mainoo (14)
Another whose seemingly clear and straightforward England career path suddenly appears uncomfortably congested after an ill-timed injury at the start of the new manager’s reign.
With Rice a certain starter, it doesn’t help Mainoo at all to see first Jones excel as Rice’s plus one against Albania before the very idea of needing two people in the midfield at all was dispensed with against Latvia in what would turn out to be the entirely accurate belief that the patently absurd Lewis-Skelly could do that as well as complete the limited responsibilities imposed on his theoretically primary role at left-back.
20) Morgan Rogers (40)
Really bright alongside Bellingham and behind Kane in the intriguing Double-10 system England adopted against Latvia. We liked that an awful lot and absolutely expect to see it again, but Rogers still has work to do to nail down even a squad place when everyone is available, given the sheer breadth and depth of options England possess for these roles.
21) Jordan Henderson (RE)
We say again: this is our best ‘educated’ (lol) guess at where Tuchel’s head is at. And his head is apparently at ‘I must pick this guy who can’t get in the Ajax team’. We all have our foibles, don’t we?
22) Eberechi Eze (37)
We make no apologies for absolutely loving the idea that Eze might emerge as a key player in Tuchelball over the next year and a bit. He is one of our favourites, and we’re choosing to read a huge amount into Tuchel’s instant reaction to him scoring a goal by doing exactly what he’d been asking his wingers to do more of.
23) Jarrod Bowen (23)
Really feels like he missed an opportunity from the start against Latvia after a lively cameo off the bench against Albania. The West Ham version of Bowen would appear to be precisely the kind of winger Tuchel is after, but we just didn’t get to see enough of that on a night that appeared tailor-made for him to thrive.
Feels certain further chances will come his way, but slightly frustrating not to see him grab this one more firmly.
ENGLAND PLAYER RATINGS FROM THIS INTERNATIONAL BREAK
👉 Foden awful, Lewis-Skelly shines and Rashford pleases everyone v Albania
👉 James puts nepotism claim to bed, Eze shines in place of boring Bowen v Latvia
24) Dean Henderson (35)
Really we had no idea about the non-Pickford goalkeepers Tuchel might prefer. As well as no idea, we also really had no strong opinions on this. Unless he went truly rogue and identified someone who isn’t Pickford as his No. 1, the rest do all feel much of a muchness. What has surprised us is Dean not being the highest-ranking Henderson on this new list.
Are we going with Henderson – Dean, not Jordan – as the No. 2 here based almost entirely on the fact his shirt number while bench-warming this week was 13 and James Trafford’s was 22? We prefer not to speak.
25) James Trafford (49)
Made the bench for both games while Aaron Ramsdale did not, while your Nick Popes and Sam Johnstones weren’t even in a squad that contained four goalkeepers. We have an early indicator of Tuchel’s goalkeeping pecking order and while we’d not suggest it is carved in stone we don’t really have a compelling reason to suggest we shouldn’t just follow that same order until and unless Tuchel himself or any of the lads involved give us tangible reason not to.
26) Levi Colwill (25)
Going through a slightly sticky patch with Chelsea – and he’s far from alone there – but retained his squad place and sat on the bench throughout these games, which for all the shuffling and climbers and fallers elsewhere leaves him roughly where we found him in November.
27) Jarell Quansah (43)
Didn’t make the matchday squad against Albania, did make the matchday squad against Latvia, didn’t make it onto the pitch. Good news for Liverpool there given their current right-back crisis, and good news for us as it gives an indication of where Quansah sits in Tuchel’s current thinking that we are entirely happy to just go along with for now.
28) Morgan Gibbs-White (33)
Really shouldn’t have needed pull-outs to find his way into this squad, we don’t think, but it gives an indication of where he sits in Tuchel’s thinking, and that helps us. He’s in his thoughts but not, we must assume, in his full-strength squad.
29) Luke Shaw (21)
We still suspect that given the chance Tuchel would like someone with greater experience at left-back in the squad at least, even if Lewis-Skelly offers tantalising hope of an end to England’s most stubbornly unsolvable of long-term problems.
The bigger question may be whether Shaw – or even Ben Chilwell – is able to give Tuchel that chance.
30) Lewis Hall (13)
There are no good times to require season-ending ankle surgery, but a time that forces you to miss your club’s first victory in a major final in living memory while also ruling you out of an international break where you as a 20-year-old have to watch someone even younger make an eye-catching grab for your spot has to be among the worst.
Desperately unlucky, but even with the notorious injury-prone nature of England’s more senior left-back options there has to be some doubt over whether Tuchel will go into a (likely) one-and-done tournament as England manager with two left-backs aged 21 and 19. And right now Lewis-Skelly just looks like the present and the future.
31) Jack Grealish (17)
Can’t really complain about being left out of Tuchel’s first squad after a miserable season with Man City, but at the same time if Grealish recaptures any kind of form at all he does seem like precisely the sort of winger Tuchel was talking about in his criticism of Rashford and Foden’s efforts against Albania.
Could have done without Rashford’s improved showing against Latvia and could absolutely have done without Eze stepping off the bench and scoring his first England goal by doing precisely what Tuchel had asked of his wingers.
32) Dominic Solanke (29)
We can only assume he remains third-choice striker for a squad that will probably only have two, one of whom is Harry Actual Kane. The fact he didn’t even get token minutes at the end of games England had clearly won probably doesn’t mean a huge amount either way, but it certainly doesn’t mean anything good for the Spurs man.
33) Tino Livramento (36)
Still in the one-cap hinterland but, unlike so many of Carsley’s Under-21 promotions, did at least retain a place in the squad under the new regime.
34) Aaron Ramsdale (26)
One of four goalkeepers in the overall squad, and the only one not named in the matchday squads. Ergo, Tuchel’s fourth-choice goalkeeper here until he isn’t.
35) Taylor Harwood-Bellis (39)
Not in this squad but trained with them to show that a player who just looks right playing international football remains in the manager’s thoughts. That’s enough for now, we think, with all eyes on where he ends up after the summer.
Because we will be very disappointed if the answer turns out to be ‘still at Southampton’.
36) Conor Gallagher (19)
A victim rather than cause of England’s soporific and uninspired displays at Euro 2024, Gallagher can certainly consider himself deeply unfortunate to be overlooked for this squad given his efforts with Atletico Madrid this season – even without the added teeth-kicking of Henderson’s call-up.
But we must as ever remember that the Ladder remains our best punt at what the England manager is thinking and not what we are thinking. We must now go with the evidence in front of us. We don’t have to like it.
37) Liam Delap (38)
We dropped him slightly down the list after Tuchel’s appointment and subsequent laser focus on 2026, but this still stands up as one of the less daft things we wrote four months ago:
‘There’s still a good case to be made that he would be next cab off the rank after Kane, Watkins and Solanke now anyway without even needing one eye on the future.’
We’d now suggest there is if anything only an even stronger case to be made.
38) Noni Madueke (10)
Hasn’t played since the middle of last month due to a hamstring injury, but also fair to suggest that even before that he wasn’t quite hitting the levels that made him a distractingly and it possibly turns out deceptively significant protagonist in The Carsley Months.
We think he may well have still been in this squad had he been available, but we absolutely wouldn’t swear to it having seen the way Tuchel treated the rest of Carsley’s Boys.
39) Dan Burn (RE)
Has to be at genuine risk of lifetime membership of the One-Cap Wonder club now, but maybe that’s enough for a player who could be forgiven for thinking his international chance had already gone.
Really wasn’t great, though, against Albania. We’re not sure exactly where it leaves him in the centre-back pecking order but it’s probably not at the front of it.
And even in the current climate where the longest-term thinking is very short indeed we’re really not sure Burn is or should be anywhere close to ahead of Lewis-Skelly, Hall or even Djed Spence in a current ranking of England’s left-back options, never mind the prospect of what returns to form and fitness for Shaw and/or Chilwell might mean.
He’s had an extraordinary fortnight has Dan, and we’re genuinely delighted for someone who seems like a fine human. But as far as England is concerned, that really might be that.
40) Jarrad Branthwaite (34)
Can you have a centre-back-based clamour? Feels like Branthwaite could absolutely test the outer limits of the true scope of The Clamour over the next six months or so. Especially if he gets a big summer move that thrusts him even further into the spotlight.
There were certainly enough dicey moments for defenders this week against fairly moderate opposition to keep those on the outside looking in interested.
41) Adam Wharton (RE)
42) Nick Pope (20)
43) Rico Lewis (27)
44) Harry Maguire (32)
45) Djed Spence (NE)
46) Mason Mount (30)
47) Ben Chilwell (41)
48) Archie Gray (RE)
49) Ethan Nwaneri (NE)
50) Phil Neville (50)
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