Cookie

Football #PUFC season ticket holder.

[Cookie @scook_6]

@Jon_Mackenzie https://t.co/tHOQJioyJA

[EBL @EBL2017]

🚨 Let me take you inside the mind of Thomas Tuchel… 💭

Tuchel prioritises profiles over names.

Gareth Southgate tried to fit all of the best names into the team to start the Euro's last time around and that resulted in England playing poorly in every game in the entire tournament.

Alright, they got to the final, but they were seconds away from being KO'd by nations like Slovakia and Switzerland which would have been a natural disgrace.

The media said 'you have to play Foden, Trent, etc'.

Tuchel doesn't buy into that primitive way of thinking, and rightly so.

He has a tactical system and the players must fit into that.

It's a 4-3-3 base with a #6, #8, #10 balance in midfield. Rice has freedom to 'feel the spaces' and play slightly lower than the #10 who must stay high and between the lines.

However, the balance in each wide triangle is the priority. On each side, when England have the ball in open play, there must be 1 player high and wide, 1 player high and between the lines in the half space, and 1 player low in a central position at the base of that triangle.

This gives England the best possible balance to interchange, combine, rotate, occupy the 5 lanes across the final third, AND maintain compactness in defensive transition in the initial line of counter-pressing and in the second line of managing the defensive transition.

Within those triangles, each player must be comfortable in each area (high and wide, in the half space between the lines, and at the base of the triangle) whilst each collective trio offer a balance of showing to feet and running in behind.

Take the left triangle, for example. O'Reilly can play in each of the three areas but also run in behind. So can Gordon and so can Rice.

On the right, the same is true for James, Saka, and Rogers.

With Kane as the #9, England will need players who penetrate the space in behind the defensive line as he drops deep to link play (this might explain why Palmer, for example, missed out).

But football is not just a 'with the ball' game.

You need to excel defensively, too. Tuchel's England press in a diamond shape from the goal kick. To press zonally, you need reliable defensive players, especially alongside someone like Kane.

Saka, Gordon, Rice, and Rogers are some of the most reliable defenders in the game. The same is also true for Bellingham. Gibbs-White would have been closer to selection than Foden and Palmer for these reasons. Not only does he run in behind more, but he is also a much better defender.

Similar can be said for Mainoo in midfield over Wharton. Mainoo has played that exact pressing role at the tip of Carrick's diamond at Manchester United, so he is an apt alternative to Declan Rice should he or Elliott Anderson get injured/suspended (Rice could then play in the #6 with Mainoo as the #8, for example).

England also try to transition into a man-to-man press at times or they defend low in a 4-4-2, and they do this via a central rotation (centre back jumps to the #10, #6 jumps to the #6, and the #10 jumps to the centre back – think Guehi, Rice, and Rogers).

Tactical discipline and collective balance relative to Tuchel's system is why he has made some eyebrow raising selections.

He likes Spence at fullback because he can play in the 3 lanes in the left triangle and provide cover at right back if James/Livramento get injured. Burn can also provide cover at left back in that context.

Someone like Henderson in midfield is unlikely to get many minutes (if any), especially because Rice is versatile to play in the #6 and #8, but his presence is crucial in the camp because of his leadership qualities. Similar can be said for Dan Burn. Levi Colwill is a better player than him, but Burn is #1) heavily underrated and #2) an incredible standard setter and character. Harry Maguire will feel unfortunate to have been left out because he profiles similarly to Burn whilst being a better player, but he is not as versatile to cover at left back in case of an injury crisis.

Quansah is also positionally versatile. It could even see Reece James play in midfield at some point because of the presence of lots of right back profiles in the squad (Konsa included).

An argument can certainly be made for a guy like Harry Maguire to be in the squad over John Stones, for example, and I can see that, but the reality is Stones also happens to be a special player who has incredible experience at the highest possible level.

Tuchel has had the luxury to leave out Maguire, Shaw, Foden, Bowen, Gibbs-White, Trent, Wharton, Palmer, Colwill, Hall, and others I'm sure that I'm forgetting like Welbeck and Calvert-Lewin… there was always going to be uproar or unhappiness at certain choices with that level of depth at his disposal.

However, from Tuchel's perspective, he strives for balance relative to his system and style of play. I think it's a risk to not bring another left-footed fullback over someone like Spence, for example, as that can negatively impact build-up dynamics as he gets trapped on his right foot (especially with Guehi being right footed on the left too), but outside of that the squad makes a lot more sense to me than it seems to to the average person…

Tuchel will give England balance at the World Cup and they are one of the favourites to win it because of that. They have always had the talent, but now they have guaranteed tactical balance on top of that. Something Southgate failed to provide at crucial moments in previous tournaments (despite doing a good job overall).

[Cookie @scook_6]

@AntonioMango4 In a 26 man squad rather than 23, having 2 players for every position he’s taken a extra player in all of defence, midfield and attack (Quansah, Eze, Toney).

[Cookie @scook_6]

@PTAlanSwann Dean Keates and Chris Westwood in the same summer.

[Cookie @scook_6]

@DMAC102 @BigCrawf @philadlam Hi all. What dates are the team in Spain for pre season? #pufc

[Cookie @scook_6]

@theposh Saving us from defeat at the Cobblers.

[TV Football 1968-92 @1968Tv]

The Top Ten Goals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
#WorldCup

[Cookie @scook_6]

Terry Bly Good! They must be bloody brilliant!! #pufc #52

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

There's a Thai golfer playing in the Masters this week named Fifa Laopakdee. That's an interesting first name, I thought. It must be a traditional name from his culture. Nope, the opposite.

[Cookie @scook_6]

What an absolute shambles. Pathetic arseholes.

[Rootz TV @Rootz_TV]

An under 14’s match in Wales was abandoned between Trefelin and Aberkenfig football clubs after the parents started fighting,

SHAMBLES 🤦🏿‍♂️

♻️ @TheRefereeForum

#referee #matchabandoned #youthfootball #grassrootsfootball

[Cookie @scook_6]

@trustchairman @Knighty28 That’s only for goalkeepers. Even if it wasn’t you couldn’t send out a player on loan to NL with 30 EFL games under his belt then say can we bring another in it’s an emergency!!

[Cookie @scook_6]

Great weekend in Hamburg watching St Pauli 2-1 Stuttgart. Tomoya Ando outstanding at centre back for St Pauli.

[Cookie @scook_6]

@ChestneyS He was here for that duration anyway on loan! The fact he’s now our player makes no difference he didn’t cost us a transfer fee! It would have been part of the deal for O’Connor to go back to Wrexham as he’s out for a lot longer than Mendy.

[Cookie @scook_6]

Signing Mendy permanently makes zero difference. Usual pointless outrage over nothing 😴
He was here on loan for the same amount of time. Wrexham weren’t going to let us send back 2 injured players. A club going forward worth having a good relationship with. #pufc

[Cookie @scook_6]

Keep chucking the shit, Pete. Something will stick!

[Pete O'Rourke @SportsPeteO]

It looks like Kone is going nowhere and Ipswich will have to look elsewhere to bring in a new striker. Ipswich will continue to keep tabs on Kone for the future.

[Cookie @scook_6]

@davidjaca Why do managers wait until half time when they can now use 5 subs!?

[Cookie @scook_6]

Paul Shaw
George Thorne
#pufc

[Jake 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🐾⛽👉😆👈 @JakeW2311]

Eliott Anderson only played 21 times for Bristol rovers and is regarded by many as one of the best midfielders to play for us

[Cookie @scook_6]

@hotelfootballuk @ashcook80

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Let’s hope the FA takes up the ticket price fight with Fifa on behalf of the thousands of England fans wanting to go to the World Cup. £5,000 for all eight games if* (*big if*) England reach final is unconscionable. It’s actually immoral. The FA can surely see that.

Thomas Tuchel’s team need as many supporters behind them as possible, especially members of the England Supporters Travel Club, backing the team in the difficult moments that lie in store. I know fans, some top cappers, just going for a couple of games now, not even the full group stage, because of the cost – tickets, internal travel, accommodation, taxes, etc. Fistfuls of dollars. Bagfulls of debts.

As well as greed, it’s also naivety by Fifa. Pricing out real fans risks problems with segregation. Plus the atmosphere will be diluted if many of the usual noise-bringers are priced out. TV will hate that. It pays Fifa fortunes for atmosphere generated by supporters.

Fifa argues that money gets ploughed back into the game. But why alienate those who help make the game special? Imagine if there are empty seats as at the Club World Cup. Fifa forgets Jock Stein’s great maxim. “Football without fans is nothing.” So treat them properly, not as cash machines. Otherwise, World Cup 2026 risks becoming the Corporate Games.

The FA rarely stands up to Fifa nowadays. The last time was 2011 when then chairman David Bernstein stood up to Sepp Blatter. (In 2022 it quickly backed down over armband-gate). Who now will stand up against Fifa? The FA could, of course, offer to subsidise some of the tickets from the substantial revenue it will make from Fifa but really the governing body of the global game should see sense.

Fifa’s slogan is: “For the Game. For the World”. Not “For The Few”. #FIFAWorldCup

[Cookie @scook_6]

@hotelfootballuk @ashcook80

[Dean Cornish @DeanCornish1966]

At least UEFA seem to know how to treat fans and ensure a tournament has actual fans attend and therefore generate a decent atmosphere. Euro 2028 will be far superior to World Cup 2026 with ticket prices that will make it just a corporate jamboree.

https://t.co/3nUNxzRi0q