{"id":489414,"date":"2025-10-10T22:16:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/489414\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T22:16:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:16:17","slug":"thomas-tuchel-addresses-englands-homegrown-problem-as-research-shows-issue-is-worse-than-when-gareth-southgate-raised-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/489414\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel addresses England&#8217;s homegrown problem as research shows issue is WORSE than when Gareth Southgate raised concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Thomas Tuchel<a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/thomas-tuchel\/index.html\" id=\"mol-83aa2840-a5d1-11f0-b749-09294e0fb1f1\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a>has told young English players they have to prove their worth after it emerged the number of homegrown footballers playing in the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/premierleague\/index.html\" id=\"mol-83ab12a0-a5d1-11f0-b749-09294e0fb1f1\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League<\/a> has plummeted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Research shows this season that the percentage of Premier League stars eligible to play for <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/england_football\/index.html\" id=\"mol-67da1b10-a5eb-11f0-9360-f39e301cda6a\" rel=\"noopener\">England<\/a> has fallen to 24.3 per cent, an all-time low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Tuchel&#8217;s predecessor as England manager <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/gareth-southgate\/index.html\" id=\"mol-83a630a0-a5d1-11f0-b749-09294e0fb1f1\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Gareth Southgate<\/a> was alarmed two years ago when the percentage fell to 33 per cent and warned that future national coaches would be forced to pick players from the Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But Tuchel views it differently and said: &#8216;It is competition. It is high level sport. The players have to fight their way to compete in the League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It is what it is. We have enough players to compete at a high level and they compete in the toughest League and they have to fight their way.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">When it was put to Tuchel that he must travel to watch Premier League games only to find hardly any English players in action, he didn&#8217;t disagree.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-6be20a58bab1425\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/102886427-15180687-image-a-1_1760108726515.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Thomas Tuchel has addressed England's homegrown issue after it emerged only\u00a024.3 per cent of the Premier League can play for the Three Lions\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Thomas Tuchel has addressed England&#8217;s homegrown issue after it emerged only\u00a024.3 per cent of the Premier League can play for the Three Lions<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-64ab22c81a19ab3d\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/102886433-15180687-image-a-2_1760108729664.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Tuchel said: 'The players have to fight their way to compete in the League' due to the standards of elite sport\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Tuchel said: &#8216;The players have to fight their way to compete in the League&#8217; due to the standards of elite sport<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Yes, sometimes that happens,&#8217; said the former Chelsea manager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It is not frustrating. Of course I would love to see more English players. The more the better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;But I come from club football and I know that no-one is holding anyone back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;If anyone deserves to play, they will play so they have to fight for their place and I think they will. Quality will always find a way.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Tuchel gave his players a day off on Friday after the previous evening&#8217;s <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-15177493\/England-3-0-Wales-2025-friendly-result.html\" rel=\"noopener\">friendly win over Wales at Wembley<\/a>. England will train at St George&#8217;s Park over the weekend and fly to Riga on Monday to face Latvia in World Cup qualifying the following day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Harry Kane is expected to be fit after resting a foot injury and his replacement Ollie Watkins is thought not to have badly injured his knee after <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-15178789\/England-Ollie-Watkins-suffers-sickening-injury-missing.html\" rel=\"noopener\">colliding with a goalpost<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Tuchel&#8217;s England are on an upward trajectory after a win in Serbia last month and now a straight forward victory against Wales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-15178877\/Thomas-Tuchels-Wembley-rant-Jude-Bellingham-Ian-Ladyman.html\" rel=\"noopener\">Tuchel was critical of the crowd<\/a> on Thursday night but does not wish to see the FA take England games away from Wembley where lack of atmosphere is often a problem.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-41092313615c520b\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/102886435-15180687-image-a-3_1760108786468.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Tuchel's predecessor Gareth Southgate had warned that future managers would have to pick stars from the Championship\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Tuchel&#8217;s predecessor Gareth Southgate had warned that future managers would have to pick stars from the Championship<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;No, no,&#8217; he said. &#8216;Don&#8217;t make a big thing out of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I am pretty sure we will play here and have no problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I felt like the boys and team deserved a bit more of a spark and in the second half they could have helped us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;But they should not under-estimate how much it helps sometimes if the game goes a bit flat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It is give and take. This is only for today. I loved the support in Serbia and I am sure we will have top support in Latvia and of course once we arrive at the World Cup it will be outstanding.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Tuchel is keen to play down the absence of players like Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden from the current squad, even though he admit Bellingham&#8217;s replacement in the No 10 position, Aston Villa&#8217;s Morgan Rogers, was outstanding against Wales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;The door is always open for anyone to jump in,&#8217; Tuchel said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Let&#8217;s play a second game and then we decide.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-153dd5133ba47118\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/102886465-15180687-image-a-4_1760108851385.jpg\" height=\"447\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Tuchel did admit that it is 'frustrating' travelling to watch Premier League games with hardly any English players in action\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Tuchel did admit that it is &#8216;frustrating&#8217; travelling to watch Premier League games with hardly any English players in action<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;The nomination comes and then there is always an open door for top quality, top character. We are in October now so we go step-by-step.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Today we can just acknowledge he [Rogers] did amazing, the team did amazing and he buys into that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;He is a humble player. He is a physical player. And he is a very talented player, of course.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;And in a good way. We need more than just 11 at the moment.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Asked if he could envisage a World Cup starting 11 similar to the one he fielded this week with Bellingham &amp; Co. on the bench, Tuchel refused to get involved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I am sorry but I don&#8217;t follow that mindset,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I am a football coach to coach the team that I nominate. And that is where my focus is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Let&#8217;s cross the river when we are at the river. It does not help anyone if we think in bubbles about what can happen and about what cannot happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;We had the last one and a half days to influence the team and I am happy they responded in this way. I am a happy coach tonight. And on Saturday we keep on going.&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel\u00a0has told young English players they have to prove their worth after it emerged the number of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[92,31425,94,12195,93,79,6573,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-489414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-england-football","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-gareth-southgate","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-thomas-tuchel","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}