Why the short contract? How will he play? Tuchel’s England move explained

Thomas Tuchel’s surprise appointment as England boss was confirmed on Wednesday, just hours after the story broke.

The 51-year-old German will replace Lee Carsley, who will go back to the England Under-21 role, on 1 January for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

With the move happening so quickly there’s not been much time to digest the news – and England fans are understandably asking lots of questions.

BBC Sport has a go at answering some of them.

Unlike many other managers, there is no one formation you can say Tuchel prefers and will play.

At Chelsea Tuchel usually utilised a back three with wing-backs – Reece James and Ben Chilwell when fit – with Kai Havertz often playing in a false nine role.

He played a three-man defence sometimes at Borussia Dortmund too – but usually they played a back four, which is the system he mainly utilised at Mainz, Paris St-Germain and Bayern Munich.

As PSG boss he was used to trying to fit several attacking stars into one team – with Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Angel di Maria, Edinson Cavani and Mauro Icardi in his squad.

Last season with Bayern he played a 4-2-3-1 with three players behind England captain Harry Kane.

“3-2-4-1 would suit England because you get four creative attack-minded players with a striker in front,” said former Scotland winger Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily.

“He hasn’t got a specific conventional way of play. When you have an open-minded manager like that you have a real chance.”

Speaking about interim boss Carsley’s attempts at playing attacking midfielders Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden in the 2-1 defeat by Greece, Nevin said: “It didn’t quite work but it’s only one version of it.

“You can try other versions too. I have a real suspicion one of the most open-minded managers at the top level will try that. I suspect they’ll be pretty exciting under Thomas.”

Harry Kane is England’s all-time leading goalscorer with 68 goals in 101 games. There have, however, been calls by some fans for the 31-year-old to be dropped, with someone else given a go.

But that is unlikely to be on the agenda for Tuchel – with the pair having paired up to such spectacular effect at Bayern last season.

Tuchel signed Kane from Tottenham in August 2023 – and the England striker hit 44 goals in 45 games under him.

In the Bundesliga he scored 36 goals in 32 games, a goal every 79 minutes, the best season of Kane’s career.

Among players to play at least 2,000 minutes for a manager in Bundesliga history, only Robert Lewandowski under Hansi Flick has a better minutes-per-goal ratio.

“You know how highly I think of Harry and how hard I fought to bring him to Bayern Munich. He is already on his way to being a legend in English football,” said Tuchel – who said he did not speak to Kane – or anyone – about taking this job.

However, Bayer Leverkusen beat Bayern to last season’s title despite all those goals – and Tuchel was replaced by Vincent Kompany.

“You have to build a team around Kane to make it work,” said former England defender Stephen Warnock.

“Tuchel know how to get the best out of Kane. It’s about getting the jigsaw pieces around Harry and make sure he gets the pieces right to get the best out of him. He’ll be delighted with the appointment.”

Other players happy to see Tuchel in the job could be Chelsea full-backs James and Chilwell, and Manchester United midfielder Mason Mount – none of whom have been England regulars for years.

Mount scored 15 goals and assisted another 12 in 56 games under Tuchel at Chelsea.

Tuchel will have to win a major tournament for his time as England boss to be considered a success.

The mixed reaction to Gareth Southgate reaching two European Championship finals – but losing both narrowly – shows that.

And they are the only two finals England have ever reached in men’s football outside the 1966 World Cup which they won.

Tuchel said he will “try to get a second star on our shirt” in a video on social media.

“If he gets over the line it’s the correct decision,” said Warnock.

“That will be the be-all and end-all. He’ll be judged on winning tournaments. If he doesn’t he’ll be deemed a failure. That’s just the height of expectation of being an England manager.”

Former England striker Alan Shearer, on The Rest is Football podcast, said: “We need a trophy. We need a manager who can deliver that.

“You have to win the tournament, that’s what he’s been hired for.”

Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “Our aim is always to win a major tournament. We believe Thomas gives us the best possible chance to do that at the next men’s World Cup.”

Tuchel has won a good amount of silverware in his club career – with the 2020-21 Champions League with Chelsea the pinnacle.

He also won the 2022-23 Bundesliga with Bayern. The link with both of those is that he took over during the season.

Tuchel also won two French titles, including a domestic treble, with Paris St-Germain – and lost a Champions League final to Bayern.

He is the first England boss to have won a major trophy in one of Europe’s top leagues, or a European trophy, since their last foreign coach – Fabio Capello, who was appointed 17 years ago.

Can Tuchel become the first foreign coach to ever win a World Cup?

“England have arguably one of the greatest squads they ever had and the great momentum of two Euros finals,” said European football journalist Julien Laurens.

“What England needed now to bring that momentum through is having a winner on the bench.”

Tuchel starts his job on 1 January 2025, meaning Carsley will take charge of the remaining two Nations League group games next month.

The German’s first game in charge will be in March, but it is not yet known what competition it will be in.

If England finish second in their Nations League group, which is their position with two games to go, they will face a promotion-relegation play-off in March against a third-placed team in League A.

But if England win their group, then March’s games would either be World Cup qualifiers or friendlies.

That will depend on whether they are drawn in a four or five-team qualifying group.

There is a chance Tuchel’s first competitive game would not come until September if they are drawn in the smaller group, and have won their Nations League group.

Asked by BBC Radio 5 live football correspondent John Murray about why a January start, FA chief executive Mark Bullingham replied: “We were always really clear with Lee that he had three international windows to run the Nations League and we think that was the right thing to do.

“Thomas was always clear that he wanted his absolute focus on the World Cup.

“He is absolutely able to be in contact with us, but the reality is, he is going to leave that to Lee.

“It’s Lee’s camp to run, they are Lee’s games to run, of course he is available if he ever wants to speak to him, but Thomas takes over on 1 January.”

The only confirmed member of his backroom staff to date is Anthony Barry as assistant boss.

The 38-year-old was Tuchel’s assistant at Chelsea and Bayern – and has had the same role with the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.

He is a set-piece specialist and wrote a dissertation on throw-ins – looking at 17,000 throw-ins in a Premier League season – as part of his Uefa Pro Licence course.

The FA said they will appoint “a small backroom team” with updates in the “near future”.

Most of Tuchel’s fallings-out at clubs, sometimes leading to his departure, have come with the people above him – often dealing specifically with transfers and budgets.

But those will not be issues with the England job.

However he has also had disputes with players and squads before.

“Tuchel can be incredibly charming and diplomatic, and can be entertaining and humorous,” German football journalist Raphael Honigstein told BBC 5 Live. “At the same time, he can be a little bit harsh about his players and that doesn’t always go down well.”

Last month Bayern legend Lothar Matthaus told Bild: “The players feel safe now and would go through fire for the coach [Kompany]. The players did not feel free under Thomas Tuchel.

“It didn’t work out with Bayern Munich. We knew that beforehand. It’s not as if Bayern didn’t see what problems he had in Dortmund, in Paris, and what problems he had in Chelsea, despite winning the Champions League.”

Warnock added: “He’s got a sense of ‘I don’t want to cross him’. You have to have a fear factor when you play for a manager so you don’t step out of line.”

French journalist Laurens said: “His man management is getting better. With Paris and all the superstars and egos, he had to change a bit rather than being this alpha male he was in Germany.”

The main criticism of Southgate’s eight-year reign, apart from his failure to win a trophy, was what was perceived as negative tactics.

But history does not indicate that it is going to be a free-scoring goalfest under Tuchel.

In the 578 games he has managed at club level his teams have scored 1147 goals and conceded 619 – an average of roughly 2-1 per game.

Honigstein said: “He has a talent for finding solutions. He’s become slightly more conservative in recent years.”

His style of play was also criticised at Bayern.

One thing England should be able to do is keep the ball.

In the last 20 years Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola is the only manager to have a higher average possession, or more successful passes, for one Premier League team than Tuchel’s 62% at Chelsea.

It is unusual for an England coach to only be handed an 18-month deal.

The fact it runs from the start of 2026 World Cup qualifying through to the end of the tournament indicates his remit is to win the trophy.

“It’s 18 months and then we agreed to sit together and we’ll see,” said Tuchel.

“It’s a good timeframe because it will help us focus. It is very streamlined.”

BBC Sport football news report Alex Howell said: “The 18 months that Tuchel has signed is understood to be an idea of the coach himself as it gives him the perfect time frame to focus on, only have World Cup qualification to worry about and have the incentive of the World Cup at the end.

“Sources told the BBC that the German has a specific idea of how he wants to build the 18 months leading into the World Cup.

Tuchel said he signed the 18-month contract “not to lose focus” and joked that some of his best work has come in that time frame before being sacked or leaving.

Sam Allardyce signed a two-year contract in 2016, although his reign only lasted one game, but all their other managers in the 21st century have been given deals of between three and five years.

The FA said the decision to appoint Tuchel and Barry was approved by their board early last week, on 8 October.

In fact, two days before Carsley’s experimental no-striker team lost at home to Greece.

However the FA kept that top secret – saying it was to “minimise distraction” around the squad and Nations League games.

That Greece defeat was felt, in many camps, to have potentially cost Carsley the England job – with nobody outside knowing that it was already decided he would not become the permanent manager.

It also explains the contradictory quotes that Carsley was criticised for, where he would seem to rule himself in and out of contention in quick succession – and say “hopefully” he would go back to his England Under-21 role.