Cole Palmer’s Impact: Finding His Place in England's Squad
Cole Palmer has kicked the new season down like a door. Four goals, two assists in six games for Chelsea, and a telepathic connection with Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro that has turned their front line into appointment viewing.
“Cole has his numbers back,” Thomas Tuchel said. “Assists, decisive goals. I think he has a point to prove.”
He does. And he’s proving it.
Left out of Tuchel’s World Cup squad, Palmer was forced to watch from afar as England stumbled in North America. Injury and fatigue had drained him after the Club World Cup; he looked nothing like the player tearing up defences now. The enforced break has clearly reset him. Rested. Sharper. Angry in the right way.
Could even that below-par version have helped England? Many will insist he could. That argument will run for a while yet.
The more urgent question is different: how on earth does Tuchel fit him in now?
Bellingham owns the 10. So where does Palmer go?
The No 10 shirt is not up for debate. Jude Bellingham nailed that role down at the World Cup, one of the stars of the tournament for Real Madrid and England. Bukayo Saka is flying again for Arsenal on the right. Anthony Gordon is thriving on the left for Barcelona after a strong summer with England in that very position.
Then there’s Rogers. Tuchel leans heavily on him. The idea of Rogers and Palmer together in the same England XI is tantalising – and complicated. Both want the ball between the lines, both drift into similar spaces, both demand to be central to the play.
Tuchel has an embarrassment of attacking options. He also has a puzzle. If Palmer’s form forces him onto the pitch, someone with serious pedigree is going to lose minutes.
Mainoo: From World Cup spectator to guaranteed minutes
Kobbie Mainoo knows all about being squeezed out. He went to the World Cup and never played a single minute. Not one.
This time Tuchel has made a promise.
“I expect him to be on the pitch and it’s my duty to get him on the pitch,” the England boss said. “That was totally on me. He didn’t put a foot wrong during the World Cup.
“He was class in behaviour on the training pitch. There was big competition; we played Reece (James) in central midfield also. Elliot Anderson is amazing for us; Declan Rice is a very unique player.
“We trusted them more than we trusted Kobbie. It was difficult for him. It was on me.”
Mainoo has started the season strongly for Manchester United and remains in a crowded midfield mix, but the tone has changed. Tuchel has admitted the mistake. The length of this camp – three weeks, four fixtures – should finally give Mainoo the platform he never had in Qatar.
Trent’s return: Tuchel’s U-turn at right-back
Trent Alexander-Arnold wearing an England shirt again should be normal. Instead, it feels seismic.
Tuchel had been adamant: Alexander-Arnold was not the right profile of right-back for his system. He repeatedly overlooked the former Liverpool defender, even when Tino Livramento’s pre-World Cup injury opened the door for a late call-up.
The questions never went away, especially when Tuchel publicly doubted England players’ ability to keep the ball and control games under pressure. Alexander-Arnold – a Real Madrid starter, one of the most gifted passers England have produced – watched from home.
He had not been in an England squad since the summer of 2025. Now he’s back.
“He was never non-selectable,” Tuchel insisted. “Now is his chance to show, come to camp, be the best version of himself. He comes as a right-back for us.”
His club form alone hasn’t forced this. One assist in five appearances for Real Madrid tells only a sliver of the story. Jose Mourinho has already used him in central midfield in the Champions League win over Inter Milan because of injuries, praising his attitude but pointing out his turnovers and the physical demands of the role.
Alexander-Arnold is still fighting for the right-back spot in Madrid, now against Denzel Dumfries rather than Dani Carvajal. The on-the-ball brilliance remains. So do the defensive doubts.
Tuchel’s change of heart opens up a new storyline for this international break: how does he actually use Alexander-Arnold, and is this a short-term experiment or the start of a long-term rethink?
From control to chaos?
After the defeat to Argentina, Tuchel went after England’s ‘DNA’, questioning their ability to control high-pressure games with the ball, like Spain.
Recalling Palmer and Alexander-Arnold looked like a tacit admission that he had left some of his most technical players at home for the World Cup. But on Friday, Tuchel hinted at something else entirely – a tactical pivot towards volatility.
“The more I reflect on it [the Argentina loss], it’s more buying into our strengths and playing more like in the second half against Croatia, or first half against France,” he said. “We get a lot of value out of it [this style]. This is what the Premier League reflects.
“Football is about adapting to situations, and football without any control is sometimes hard to digest for a coach. If you look at the 6-4 against France, people talk about it like it’s one of their nicest experiences ever to watch a football match.
“Maybe I have to compromise in my wish for control – maybe we need more chaos, to embrace the chaos. Maybe it brings out the best.
“We will adjust our style but always to put the strengths of the players on the first priority.”
If Tuchel really leans into that idea, players like Palmer and Alexander-Arnold move from luxury options to central figures.
Gibbs-White: Numbers, but no ticket
Morgan Gibbs-White has every right to feel aggrieved.
Fifteen Premier League goals and four assists for Nottingham Forest last season. A blistering start again this term. He dragged Forest away from relegation and has carried that form into the new campaign.
Still, no England call.
The problem is simple and brutal: the No 10 queue is too long. Palmer is back in a squad that already includes Bellingham, Rogers and Eberechi Eze.
“He was close but it’s always the same,” Tuchel said. “It makes no sense to choose three, four or five No 10s. It just doesn’t help anyone. We can see the form that Morgan is in. He ended the season strongly and was the key player for Forest to not be relegated.”
Gibbs-White will look at Eze and wonder. The Arsenal playmaker has not started a Premier League game this season and produced roughly half as many goal involvements as Gibbs-White last year. But Tuchel has made his call.
For Gibbs-White, the message is harsh but clear: keep producing, and wait for someone else to blink. If Palmer cannot translate club form into England performances, that door swings open again.
“It’s one thing to be chosen, like Cole, and get your ticket back to the squad, but it’s another thing to perform for England,” Tuchel added. “Cole, especially, needs to step up when he comes and show these kinds of numbers and performances to get his place, keep his shirt and justify the nomination.”
Foden: From golden boy to outsider
Phil Foden is another high-profile casualty of the No 10 logjam.
Left out of the World Cup squad, he fought his way back into Tuchel’s plans in March and November 2025. His start to this season for Manchester City had been encouraging too – until a red card in the Manchester derby halted his momentum.
Now he’s out again.
In an area of the pitch where England are stacked, Foden faces a brutal fight to change Tuchel’s mind. The sting will be sharper as Tuchel turns back to technicians like Alexander-Arnold and Palmer while Foden watches from the outside.
A new generation pushed to the front
One thing is unmistakable: this is not the same England squad that went to the World Cup.
Jordan Henderson, Ivan Toney, Ollie Watkins – all gone. In their place, a wave of youth: Myles Lewis-Skelly, Alex Scott, Rio Ngumoha. All under 23. Ngumoha only just 18.
Ngumoha is the headline pick. The Liverpool teenager travelled with England to Florida before the World Cup and has appeared in five of their six games this season. No goals or assists yet, but enough maturity and spark to convince Tuchel he belongs at senior level.
Lewis-Skelly’s case is more straightforward. He has been outstanding for unbeaten league leaders Arsenal, dictating from deep, providing two assists, and keeping £75m signing Bruno Guimaraes out of the starting XI.
Scott, meanwhile, has carried last season’s form at Bournemouth into this one. He was arguably the key piece in a side that qualified for European football for the first time, and his performances attracted interest from Chelsea and Manchester United.
“We had three players in prep camp with us [before the World Cup], Alex Scott, Rio Ngumoha and Josh [King], all three of them were fantastic members of the squad,” Tuchel said.
“Not only because they were nice and reliable and excellent characters, but they showed the quality, courage and curiosity on the pitch, which was very nice to see.”
Whether Tuchel remodels his tactics around this younger core is still unclear. What is obvious is his willingness to throw them into the fire.
The squad, and the tests ahead
Tuchel’s first post-World Cup squad underlines the shift:
- Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jason Steele (Brighton & Hove Albion), James Trafford (Leeds United)
- Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Real Madrid), Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Trevoh Chalobah (Como), Marc Guéhi (Manchester City), Lewis Hall (Newcastle United), Ezri Konsa (Arsenal), Tino Livramento (Newcastle United), Nico O'Reilly (Manchester City), Jarrell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen)
- Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Manchester City), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Alex Scott (AFC Bournemouth)
- Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds United), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Anthony Gordon (Barcelona), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Rio Ngumoha (Liverpool), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Morgan Rogers (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
The Nations League will not wait for anyone to settle in:
- Saturday September 26: Spain (H), 7.45pm
- Tuesday September 29: Czech Republic (A), 7.45pm
- Saturday October 3: Croatia (A), 5pm
Spain will test Tuchel’s talk of chaos against a side built on control. Croatia will drag England into another emotional, tactical battle. Somewhere in the middle of all that, Palmer must find his place, Alexander-Arnold must prove he belongs again, and a new generation must show it is ready.
If Tuchel really is ready to “embrace the chaos”, this camp will reveal whether England can live in that storm – or be swallowed by it.
