Of all the England players who were left out of Thomas Tuchel's squad for their October fixtures, Jude Bellingham's omission seemed the most confusing. The midfielder has been one of the Three Lions' main protagonists ever since breaking into the starting XI post-Euro 2020 heartbreak and has long been heralded as a key player for whichever team he's representing.
There was, at least, sound enough reasoning not to call upon Bellingham for this international window in particular. After Real Madrid's elimination from the Club World Cup in July, he decided to finally undergo surgery on a long-standing shoulder issue which had been of detriment to his performances all throughout 2024-25. This was expected to result in a period of three months on the sidelines, but such has been the superhuman aura about Bellingham in his short career thus far, he made his return in September, several weeks ahead of schedule.
Bellingham has played five times for Madrid this season, though those appearances have only seen him clock 126 minutes in total, while he has started just once – in their 5-2 defeat to city rivals Atletico. "He has not fully gathered rhythm yet at Real Madrid," Tuchel said at his squad announcement a fortnight ago. "He is back in the team. He hasn't finished one full match until now, he has only started one match, so he is in the period where he gets his rhythm, where he gets back to full strength."
That was, however, one of two reasons why Bellingham didn't make the cut on this occasion. The other ought to at least make the 22-year-old feel a little uncomfortable, but it serves as great news for positional rival and fellow West Midlands native, Morgan Rogers.
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Tuchel's explanation that Bellingham needed more minutes in his legs again came as part of a wider point about why he called upon the same squad as in September (bar Bukayo Saka coming in for the injured Noni Madueke). The German also said: "Jude is a very special player, and for special players there can always be special rules. I get this. But for this camp we decided that we stick with our straightforward decision to invite the same team. That applies also then for Jude, he deserves always to be in camp."
That seems fair enough, but Tuchel also laid down the gauntlet to the various other stars he either overlooked or ruled out for this camp. "We are not collecting the most talented players, we are trying to build a team. Teams win trophies, no-one else," was his headline message.
"That's how it is in international football," the Three Lions' boss continued. "But the thing you are playing [back to me] is not what I am saying. You are playing the game that says: 'He (Tuchel) is saying the others who aren't in the team, you cannot build a team with them'. It's not like this. We built a team with the players who were available and they did so well so we go again with them. Nobody said we can't do the same with them. Or even better, or maybe the same level, with the others.
"For this moment we stick with our choice and the radical statement is that we don't collect the most talented players. We collect the guys who have the glue and cohesion to be the best team. Because we need to arrive as the best team. We will arrive as underdogs at the World Cup because we haven't won it for decades and we will play against teams who have repeatedly won it during that time. So we have to arrive as a team or we will have no chance."
AdvertisementAFPBellingham's role
Bellingham's performances in the Tuchel era have been quietly positive, even if the perception is they have been mixed. In the German's first game in charge, a 2-0 win at home to Albania, Bellingham played as a No.10 who was afforded licence to roam, and he teed up debutant Myles Lewis-Skelly for the opening goal. A few days later in their 3-0 triumph over Latvia, Tuchel deployed Bellingham in a deeper role with the task of drifting towards the left to link up with winger Marcus Rashford, and though he was a net-positive in attack, the Madrid man had to be hooked when he risked picking up a second booking.
Fast-forward to the June internationals, and Bellingham proved less than decisive in an underwhelming 1-0 triumph against Andorra in Barcelona. He was then dropped to the bench for the following 3-1 defeat against Senegal at the City Ground, coming on as a late substitute and seeing a goal ruled out after a VAR check for a foul in the build up.
Not for the first nor last time, Tuchel then fanned the flames of controversy post-Senegal, claiming that Bellingham's visible on-pitch attitude could be construed as 'repulsive'. He said: "How we can have the best version of him [Bellingham] and the best acceptance that people understand what he is bringing to us, and that he is bringing a certain edge? Sometimes you see the rage, you see the hunger and the rage and the fire, and it comes out in a way that can be a bit repulsive, for example for my mother when she sits in front of the TV. In general we are very happy to have him. He is a special boy."
Tuchel would go on to apologise for these comments and his careless choice of words in a second language, but the damage had been done and the soundbite was in the universe. There were already question marks over how he and a star player like Bellingham would get along.
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Starting with that win against Latvia at Wembley back in March, Tuchel has sought to mould Rogers into more of a No.8, a traditional central midfielder who can get forward and drag the team into attack. He still gets into similar areas as at club level with Aston Villa, flitting between the lines and pulling into wide areas, but it's also clear that the England boss values Rogers' ability to drive from deep too.
In that rare start together versus Latvia, Rogers completed only 33 passes out of 39 attempted across the full match, whereas Bellingham made 56 of his 60 in 67 minutes. Rogers also completed the most dribbles, seven out of eight, compared to Bellingham's tally of one out of two. Both took six shots.
The upside of Rogers is he isn't a player who typically requires lots of touches, happy enough to drift and coast in order to make an impact out of nothing. In this sense, he is more of a Dele Alli 2.0 than Bellingham, whose evolving game has seen him demand a lot more of the ball and get involved as much as possible. Few would question if Rogers went 20 or 30 minutes without doing much, but the knives would be out for a bonafide superstar like Bellingham if they did the same.
When Rogers has been in the thick of the action in an England shirt, he's delivered, most notably proving the catalyst in last month's 5-0 thrashing of Serbia in a hostile Belgrade atmosphere. Even in this excursion, Rogers made 22 of 27 passes and had only 40 touches in total despite playing the full 90. Tuchel had his new midfield talisman team up with winger Madueke and striker Harry Kane, playing the role to a tee and building a new set of relationships that the manager has openly craved. It's hard to tell whether a jack-of-all-trades like Bellingham would retain such similar positional discipline.
When Tuchel was asked what he wants of his most advanced midfielder, he recently replied: "We want goal threat; team effort in pressing and high press; physicality; discipline in the position; being influential – everything." For now, Rogers ticks more of those boxes.
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While Rogers' stock as an England player has never been higher, the reverse must be said of his status at Villa. He romped to the 2024-25 PFA Young Player of the Year award, but has started the new season in questionable form for Unai Emery's side. In 10 games across all competitions for his club, Rogers is yet to score and has tallied only two assists to date.
What seemed to be the nadir of Rogers' slump came during Villa's 1-0 win at home to Bologna in their Europa League opener, during which he was booed at points and received ironic cheers whenever he completed a pass. Given he only made 10 of the 24 he attempted (in the full 90 minutes), at least that wasn't too often, then.
"The fans have to show their emotions. We have to accept it," Emery warned post-match. "They applaud us and sometimes not. We have to accept it. Morgan is young and needs time for experiences. I kept him on the field because I wanted his reaction, how he was accepting everything and he did it. He didn’t play well and wasn’t clinical in the attacking third to do the last assist, but I wanted to keep him because, firstly, he’s always doing his task. (He was) working for the team, but today he was not being clinical offensively. He needs to take experiences today, not playing every game well, the crowd not being happy with him and him getting his experiences and grow up through it."
This is problem England and Tuchel could encounter further down the line if Rogers' Premier League and Europa League performances remain the subject of such ire. Villa's improved run of seven games without defeat and four wins on the spin suggests the worst of their struggles are behind them, while Rogers' two assists came in his last two matches.