‘Lee Carsley deserves extra time with England – Thomas Tuchel should stick together with his imaginative and prescient’

Gareth Southgate’s time as England boss ended in ultimate failure, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of some critics.

But when Thomas Tuchel takes charge as his successor at the start of 2024, the German would be forgiven for feeling like a kid in a sweet shop. He will look around at a pool of future and established talent, while licking his lips at the prospect of what he could go on to achieve with it.

All Tuchel has to do now is work out who to take with him, on what promises to be a fascinating journey FA bosses hope will lead to World Cup glory in 2026. Good luck with that, Thomas.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing Tuchel is not just picking a squad, which he will do for the first time in March, but deciding what his best team is.

England brushed aside the feeble challenges of Greece and Republic of Ireland without the services of Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jack Grealish, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo, John Stones, and Luke Shaw.

All were integral to England’s achievement of reaching back-to-back Euros finals under Southgate.

And it’s safe to assume Tuchel will build his team around most of those mentioned above.

But in their absence, fresh faces have shown themselves on the biggest stage to thrive in the bravery of Lee Carsley’s interim leadership.

Carsley spent his six games in charge on a mission to give supporters a glimpse of the future.

And now the question is, will Tuchel share his predecessor’s vision – or stick with the present?

We will have to wait four months to find out.

But Carsley believes Tuchel faces the best headache any manager can have.

He said: “A lot of the international coaches at the UEFA conferences I went to, at the debrief of the tournaments they said ‘you’ve got a lot of good players’, as if that’s a negative thing.

“If they’re all in form at exactly the same time, then it’s a challenge.

“But players do come in and out of form, and it’s about putting them in the team when they’re flying, and resting them when they’re not.

“I think there’s competition for places. I think the best chance of us winning is, if we can, find a place for players at the right time.

“It’s a challenge. It needs work. One thing you don’t get with the international camps is time. So we just have to find that balance.”

Carsley has been a breath of fresh air since stepping into the breach.

He’s not been afraid to make certain calls Southgate refused to, was willing to take risks and perhaps deserved a longer shot at proving he was the right man to lead England instead of Tuchel.

He will now return to his job as U21 coach, but hopes Tuchel shares his footballing philosophies of sending out attacking teams, when he gets stuck into one of the most demanding jobs in world sport.

Carsley added: “I think we have such attacking talent in this group of players, that I felt the best way is to attack.

“And we have shown that you control games. It is fair to say the challenges will be more difficult in the 18 months in terms of if we are going to win the World Cup.

“We have shown we can do it. We have to take a lot of positives from it. We have given the lads a lot of opportunities – and the most pleasing is that they have shown everyone what they can do.”