Butt Backs Rogers to Challenge Bellingham at World Cup
Nicky Butt can see it already. A World Cup, the heat, the noise, the pressure — and Thomas Tuchel tearing up the England pecking order without a second thought.
The former Manchester United and England midfielder is convinced the national team’s new manager will be ruthless in 2026, even with his biggest names. Jude Bellingham, he says, is not immune.
Bellingham arrives at the tournament as one of the faces of world football, but also as a player coming off a stop-start, injury-hit season. A shoulder problem, then a hamstring issue, kept interrupting his rhythm, limiting him even as he still managed 40 appearances in all competitions, 30 from the start, for Real Madrid.
That status, though, will not guarantee him anything under Tuchel, Butt insists.
Because lurking behind him is Morgan Rogers.
Rogers on the rise
While Bellingham has been battling his body, Rogers has been accelerating. The Aston Villa playmaker is heading to the World Cup on the back of a breakout campaign that changed both his profile and his reputation.
Villa finished fourth in the Premier League and lifted the Europa League trophy. Rogers, just 23, played a full part in that surge, delivering 13 goals and 11 assists across the league and Europe. Those are not squad-player numbers. They are “give me the ball, I’ll decide it” numbers.
His influence with England has grown just as quickly. Since making his debut in 2024, he has featured in 13 of the national side’s 14 matches. Butt sees a pattern forming — and a potential storm for the established order.
Speaking to Paddy Power, he placed Rogers in exalted company, but with a twist.
“[Harry] Kane, [Declan] Rice, [Bukayo] Saka and [Jude] Bellingham are the superstars,” Butt said, “but Morgan Rogers could be the one that really stands out.”
The key variable, in Butt’s eyes, is Bellingham’s start to the tournament.
“It’ll depend on how Jude Bellingham starts the tournament. If he starts the tournament on fire, then it's different. But if he's not on the ball or Harry Kane needs to be coming or he’s not scoring goals…”
The implication is clear. If England’s headline act misfires, Tuchel will not wait around.
A ‘Tuchel kind of player’
Rogers, Butt argues, fits his manager like a glove.
“Rogers is a [Thomas] Tuchel kind of player, he likes him a lot in that number ten role,” he said. “He can score goals from outside the box. Lots of World Cup goals come from outside the box because teams sit deep around the box.”
That detail matters. In the tight, tactical games that define knockout football, the player who can punish a low block from 20 yards suddenly becomes priceless.
Butt is convinced Rogers has that extra spark.
“I think Rogers has got the X-factor. He scores goals, he started to come really good towards the end of the season. He started the season on fire, he had a bit of a blip but then he came again.”
This is not a prediction of an instant promotion. Butt fully expects Tuchel to open the tournament with a largely settled side.
“I've got a sneaking feeling that he could come off the bench a few times and score some really important goals. He could be the difference in a lot of games.
“I think the starting XI picks itself and he won’t get in straight away. But if Bellingham's not flying, one thing about Tuchel is that he doesn't give a f*ck about player egos or the perception. If Bellingham, for example, is not playing well, he'll take him out of the firing line and put Rogers straight in.
“You could then see someone who could become England's best player in the tournament, he's got that much ability. People can go in as a bit-part player and come out being a superstar. It's happened with so many players over the years.”
For Butt, Rogers is exactly that type of story waiting to happen.
Doubts over England’s chances
If his belief in Rogers is strong, his faith in England’s overall prospects is far less so.
Butt sees a young squad, a demanding environment and a nation whose expectations rarely align with reality.
“I personally think it would be a success to get to the final stages — the semi or the final,” he said. “But even then, with our expectations as a nation, I think even a semi might be seen as a failure.
“I don't think it would be. We’ve got a young squad, it's going to take time. I can't see us winning it. With the conditions over there, the heat and humidity, all the travel, it just doesn't seem possible. I'm not confident.”
The bar, he feels, will be set brutally high.
“A failure for me would be obviously not getting out of the group stages. If we don't get to the semi, some would see that as a big failure especially with all the talent that we've got and because of those that we’ve left at home.”
That last point stings. The omissions will hang over Tuchel from the first whistle.
“They’re out of form but he’s not picked Phil Foden, not picked Cole Palmer, not picked Harry Maguire or Trent Alexander-Arnold. So if we don’t get to the latter stages, the finger will be pointed straight at Thomas Tuchel.”
And Butt does not see the manager hanging around if it goes wrong.
“If that happens I think he'd be gone. Both from The FA side and he'd be gone personally as well. He'll want to get back into club football, he looks like a real club football manager, day to day he wants to be involved in it. Obviously the England job came along, it's a massive job, it's one of the biggest jobs in the world. But if it's not a success, I think both parties will want to part ways.”
Brazil, Argentina… and a brutal last-16 scenario
Look beyond England and Butt’s view of the wider field is shaped by one thing: the conditions.
“I honestly do think because of the conditions and the heat and the humidity, it’s going to be really tough. We could play Mexico in Mexico City in the last 16.”
That prospect alone is enough to harden his stance on the favourites.
“It'd be crazy not to look at Brazil or Argentina as favourites. Obviously Brazil aren't the team that used to be with Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos. They've not got superstar names like that, or as many.
“Spain are the favourites and you can see that as they can handle the hit and they'll have a big following. I could see that they'd be there or thereabouts, but for me I've just got Brazil and Argentina stuck in my head. I just think it'll be them.”
So England head into 2026 with a new manager, a superstar under scrutiny, and a rising playmaker ready to pounce if the door opens.
If Tuchel really does ignore reputations, as Butt insists, the most intriguing battle of England’s World Cup might not be with Brazil or Argentina at all — but for that number ten role, and the right to shape the tournament in an England shirt.
