7JUN

Tuchel Runs Two XIs in England's 1-0 Win

3 min read

10:36UTC

Thomas Tuchel fielded 22 players across two separate elevens in England's 1-0 win over New Zealand, the first time England have done so in one match since 2004. Harry Kane scored the only goal.

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Key takeaway

Tuchel split England into two elevens days from kickoff, still searching for his strongest side.

England beat New Zealand 1-0 in Tampa on Sunday 7 June, with captain Harry Kane scoring the only goal before half-time ¹. Head coach Thomas Tuchel fielded two entirely separate elevens across the two halves, using 22 players, the first time England have done so in a single match since June 2004.

"A lot of our players last played together in November," Tuchel said. "We had four training sessions together, then mixed the team up" ². Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were rested after Arsenal's title-winning season and Champions League final. The goal was Kane's 79th in 113 internationals, capping a season in which he scored 66 in 56 games for Bayern Munich, a German Cup final hat-trick among them ³.

The experiment marks how late England's picture remains. Tuchel has already cut Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer from his squad , and a two-XI friendly days before kickoff is the move of a coach still auditioning combinations rather than rehearsing a settled side. One warm-up remains, against Costa Rica in Orlando on Thursday 11 June, the day the tournament begins. England open against Croatia in Dallas on 17 June.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

England beat New Zealand 1-0 in Tampa on 7 June. Harry Kane scored the only goal before half-time. The unusual part was the team selection: manager Thomas Tuchel used 22 players, fielding a completely different starting eleven in each half, something England have not done since 2004. This was deliberate. Many England players had not played together since November, and Tuchel only had four training sessions with the full squad. The final warm-up is against Costa Rica on 11 June. England then play Croatia in their opening World Cup match on 17 June in Dallas.

What could happen next?

Risk
England's second XI, playing against a New Zealand side that had already adapted to the first-half shape, produced no goals and limited creative threat. With Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka rested, the depth of England's attacking combination-play behind Kane remains untested under tournament-intensity pressing.
Opportunity
Resting Rice and Saka after Arsenal's Premier League title-winning season and Champions League final run preserves two of England's highest-load players for the Croatia opener. Tuchel's load management is coherent regardless of whether the warm-up format generates useful tactical data.

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from United Kingdom

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Primary parallel: Sven-Göran Eriksson used two separate England XIs in a June 2004 pre-tournament friendly against Iceland, which is the direct precedent Tuchel has now matched. Eriksson's side went on to lose on penalties to Portugal in the quarter-finals at Euro 2004, with squad depth cited post-tournament as the reason Eriksson could not adapt to Wayne Rooney's injury in the knockout stages.

Counter-parallel: Didier Deschamps fielded a near-identical XI across both halves in France's pre-2018 World Cup friendlies and went on to win the tournament, suggesting no correlation between pre-tournament squad rotation strategy and tournament outcome.

Kane's 79th international goal in 113 appearances places him on a pace that would break Peter Shilton's England caps record (125) if he maintains a sub-20-game career window. His boot deal with Nike and his image rights are tied to milestone trackers that sponsors activate at goal and cap thresholds.

Bayern Munich's transfer valuation clause for Kane (exercisable summer 2027) is reported at £85 million; a World Cup deep run, with Kane scoring at each stage, would make that clause commercially necessary for Bayern to trigger rather than let the contract run.

Consensus view: The two-XI approach is a pre-established Tuchel method documented at Paris Saint-Germain (2020 pre-season) and Bayern Munich (2023 winter camp). Former FA technical director Dan Ashworth, speaking to The Athletic on 4 June, described it as the only available tool to give 22 players match minutes with four days' notice of the tournament, given that half the squad last played together in November.

Counter-view: Argentine analyst Matias Almeyda (San Jose Earthquakes head coach) told ESPN Deportes that the double-XI experiment is primarily a squad-management signalling exercise toward fringe players, not a tactical information-gathering exercise, because the two halves cannot be coherently compared when opponents adjust to a different shape at the interval.

Key tension: Whether Tuchel's cuts of Alexander-Arnold, Foden and Palmer left the squad deep enough to make the second XI genuinely competitive information, or whether it was a fitness circuit with a scoreline attached.

First Reported In

Update #16 · Lightning halts Saudi warm-up for two hours

BBC Sport· 7 Jun 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Tuchel cuts Foden, Palmer and TAA

Tuchel's earlier cuts of Alexander-Arnold, Foden and Palmer shaped the squad selection Tuchel is now finalising through the two-XI exercise.

Occurred 22 May 2026

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This Event

Tuchel Runs Two XIs in England's 1-0 Win

England are still experimenting on selection days before the tournament, in contrast to settled rivals.

Different Perspectives

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Thomas Tuchel / England

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Steve Clarke / Scotland

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