29MAY

Tuchel cuts Foden, Palmer and TAA

3 min read

15:10UTC

Thomas Tuchel left Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer out of England's final 26 on Friday 22 May, three high-profile attackers and a right-back sent home in form.

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Key takeaway

England's gamble is positional balance over Alexander-Arnold's range against teams that defend deep.

Thomas Tuchel, the German head coach of England, cut Trent Alexander-Arnold from his final 26 on Friday 22 May, weeks after recalling the Liverpool right-back to a provisional 55-man list ¹. Phil Foden of Manchester City and Cole Palmer of Chelsea also missed out, two of the Premier League's sharpest attackers omitted while playing well. England therefore go to the tournament without three players their domestic press had treated as near-certainties.

The Alexander-Arnold omission carries a tactical cost the headline hides. He is England's most precise long passer from deep, the player who can break a packed defence with a diagonal before it sets. Leaving him out narrows how England can build against a low block, the shape most group opponents will adopt against a side carrying that much attacking talent. Tuchel has chosen positional balance over a single elite skill, and that trade only reveals itself once England meet a team content to defend its box.

Tuchel's other calls run steadier. Jude Bellingham made it after a hamstring doubt cleared. Jordan Henderson travels to a fourth World Cup, equalling Sir Bobby Charlton's record, and Harry Kane to a third, matching Billy Wright. The instinct shared across this week's squads, fit and trust ahead of recent club output, is one England applied to bigger names than anyone else.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Every World Cup squad has 26 places, and coaches always have to leave out some very good players. On 22 May, England manager Thomas Tuchel announced his final 26, and three famous names were missing: Trent Alexander-Arnold (a right-back and midfielder who plays for Real Madrid), Phil Foden (a midfielder who won England's top individual player award recently), and Cole Palmer (a Chelsea attacking midfielder in outstanding form). All three are at the top of their games right now. Tuchel left them out on tactical grounds: he wants players who work in a specific way without the ball, and he judged others a better fit for that system. England's results in June will show whether that call was right. Jude Bellingham, arguably England's best player, did make the squad after recovering from a hamstring injury that had worried staff.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Alexander-Arnold's Real Madrid transfer in summer 2025 introduced a positional ambiguity that never resolved under Tuchel. At Liverpool he played right-back with licence to invert centrally; at Real Madrid the system demanded a more orthodox defensive role. Tuchel, whose own defensive structure requires right-back discipline, lost confidence that Alexander-Arnold would replicate Madrid's restraint in an England shirt rather than revert to Liverpool instincts.

Foden and Palmer's omissions reflect a surplus problem this England generation has carried for years: more elite attacking midfielders than a balanced 26 can hold, with Bellingham first-choice and Rashford and Saka filling the wide creative roles. Tuchel was not choosing between strong and weak players; he was choosing among several of similar quality, and somebody outstanding was always going to miss out.

What could happen next?

Risk
England's open-play chance creation drops significantly without Palmer and Foden, increasing reliance on set-pieces and Bellingham's individual brilliance.
Immediate · Assessed
Consequence
The Alexander-Arnold omission ends his England World Cup career at 27, barring a recall in 2030.
Long term · Assessed
Precedent
Tuchel's willingness to cut three of England's five most commercial players signals that The Football Association has genuinely ceded selection authority to the coaching staff, a structural shift from the Southgate era.
Medium term · Assessed

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: England under Glenn Hoddle left a teenage David Beckham out of the opening 1998 World Cup matches on the manager's judgment of fit rather than reputation, and the squad's creative balance became the defining post-tournament debate after elimination to Argentina. A manager subordinating high-profile attacking names to his own system is a recurring England story, and Tuchel's cut of Palmer and Foden sits squarely in that tradition.

Counter-parallel: Fabio Capello went to the 2010 World Cup without David Beckham, who was injured, and the side still reached the round of 16 before losing heavily to Germany. Leaving out a talismanic name does not by itself sink a tournament; the system either produces or it does not, regardless of who is absent.

Consensus view: Tuchel's cut follows a recognisable tournament logic: prioritise positional discipline and off-ball work over the highest individual technical ceilings. Joachim Löw won the 2014 World Cup with Germany on a similar principle, leaving flair options at home for players who held shape. The trade-off is that England's chance creation from open play falls when its most inventive passers, Palmer and Foden, are the names cut.

Counter-view: The opposing read is that this signals conservatism imported from Tuchel's club career, where compact shape and transition control matter more than raw creativity, rather than a plan built around England's specific strengths. All three cut players would start for most other squads at this tournament, and the noise around Alexander-Arnold's move from Liverpool to Real Madrid sits awkwardly close to a decision Tuchel frames as purely tactical.

Key tension: Whether Tuchel can generate the chance volume England needs to win knockout matches without its sharpest creators, or whether a tighter, more functional side trades goals for control it cannot convert.

Sources:The Football Association

Mentions:Thomas Tuchel →Trent Alexander-Arnold →Jude Bellingham →Israel Football Association →Real Madrid →Madrid →England →Premier League →Germany →Argentina →World Cup →Harry Kane →

First Reported In

Update #12 · 13 Days to Go: Squads land, subpoenas follow

The Football Association· 29 May 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Tuchel recalls Alexander-Arnold; Bellingham hamstring worse than feared

Tuchel recalled Alexander-Arnold to the provisional 55 but then cut him from the final 26 on 22 May.

Occurred 12 May 2026

Read story →

This Event

Tuchel cuts Foden, Palmer and TAA

England travel without their record passer at right-back, narrowing the build-up options against teams that sit deep.

Different Perspectives

Argentina / Lionel Scaloni

Scaloni confirmed Messi for a record sixth World Cup on 28 May, choosing the 38-year-old captain's institutional authority over 18-year-old Franco Mastantuono's development potential. Commercial as well as sporting considerations weigh on any Messi decision, and Argentina's AFA was never likely to backstop an exclusion on pure sporting logic.

DFB / Rudi Völler

Völler issued informal guidance to Germany's squad on around 27 May to keep politics and sport separate, stopping short of the formal ban that produced Qatar 2022's OneLove armband collision. The approach gives the federation documented deniability while preserving each player's legal freedom to act independently.

England Football Association / Thomas Tuchel

Tuchel cut Alexander-Arnold, Foden and Palmer on system grounds, the clearest signal yet that the FA has genuinely ceded selection authority to the coaching staff. England travel without Palmer, one of the Premier League's sharpest creators, accepting a narrower build-up vocabulary against low-block opponents in exchange for off-ball discipline.

Football Supporters Europe / Euroconsumers

The fan coalition's Article 102 TFEU complaint, filed in March and unacknowledged past the April deadline, was confirmed for assessment by the European Commission on 28 May. Brussels logging the file gives the complainants a live regulatory record FIFA must preserve, building on the European Super League judgment that exposed FIFA and UEFA rules to EU competition scrutiny.

New York and New Jersey Attorneys General / UNITE HERE Local 11

On 28 May, Letitia James and Jennifer Davenport subpoenaed FIFA under their broad state authority to pursue an entity trading in their states, regardless of FIFA's Swiss registration; that same week UNITE HERE Local 11 moved its campaign to California privacy law, filing with the CPPA over FIFA accreditation data shared with DHS and ICE without worker consent.

FFIRI / Mehdi Taj

Taj framed Tijuana as resolving entry friction while simultaneously demanding multiple-entry US visas, because single-entry papers would strand the squad in Mexico after the first match-day crossing. Both are needed: the camp solves accommodation, the visa solves the border crossings Iran's three group matches require, the first before 15 June.