Tuchel’s Bellingham Masterstroke
By Adrian Durnham
July 15 2026
England manager Thomas Tuchel has played an absolute blinder with his management of Jude Bellingham since taking over as England boss.
Bellingham has been sensational at this World Cup. England’s star man, potentially player of the tournament depending on how England get on against Argentina and hopefully in the final.
Bellingham is playing like he has something to prove, and credit must go to Tuchel for that. He is playing to the levels that we know he is capable of and I do not believe we would be seeing this version of Bellingham without Tuchel’s intervention.
The talk prior to the tournament was whether it would be Bellingham or Rogers that would start as England’s number ten. That debate seems utterly ridiculous now but at the time it was certainly valid.
Tuchel, creating a scenario where Bellingham may not be an England starter has made him a better player and brought him back down to earth. He has been the ultimate team player in this tournament whereas in the previous tournament he had begun to believe his own hype and tried to do everything himself to the detriment of the team.
His superb overhead kick goal in the last Euros saved him from criticism but he was extremely poor throughout with Southgate afraid to do anything about it.
Tuchel leaving Bellingham out of a squad altogether showed that he is not bigger than the team and he could have sulked, I probably expected him to sulk, but he has rose to the challenge to prove that he is England’s best player.
I believe Tuchel knew what he was doing all along with this and it truly is genius man management.
Had the Bellingham of Euro 2024 turned up to this tournament both in terms of attitude and the way he was playing, then I believe England would be sitting at home watching on TV now.
I am giving Tuchel a lot of credit for his management of Bellingham, but Bellingham deserves equal credit for the way he has taken on this challenge.
The disagreement between them after the Norway victory is nothing to worry about and wouldn’t have happened without the reporter twisting it that way. I am sure they both on the same page as we head into the Argentina game.
COME ON ENGLAND