England wide men Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden struggled to make an impact in the World Cup qualifying opener against Albania and questions have been asked about the pair
Former England international Paul Merson has suggested the Three Lions’ match against Latvia on Monday will be a real test for Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden as the pair look to prove their worth to Thomas Tuchel. New boss Tuchel criticised his wide players after Friday’s victory over Albania, and Merson doesn’t expect the pair to get many more chances to turn things around.
England came out on top in Tuchel’s first match since taking over as manager. Myles Lewis-Skelly scored on his senior international debut, and captain Harry Kane made victory secure in the World Cup qualifying opener.
Tuchel felt there was still room for improvement, though. He wasn’t afraid to call out particular areas, including in the wide attacking spots where Rashford and Foden were both given more than 70 minutes to make their case.
“We hope for more impact in these positions and then we tried with Anthony [Gordon] and Jarrod [Bowen],” Tuchel said. “I hope for a little bit more impact with more dribbling and less passing.
“More aggressive runs towards the box. In general that was missing. I think all of the chances come from the little runs behind the line, Jude [Bellingham] had some good runs in the first-half of the first half.”
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Merson, who played for England at the 1998 World Cup, believes Tuchel will be ruthless in his squad selections in the lead-up to the 2026 edition of the tournament. With that in mind, he feels the pressure will be on Rashford and Foden if they are chosen to start again on Monday.
“What Tuchel said about Foden and Rashford, I don’t think they’ve got too many more chances,” Merson said on Soccer Saturday (via Metro). “I think they probably play this next game and then he’ll go, ‘You know what? I’ve had a little go at them, let’s see how they respond’.
“If they don’t perform in this game, I think he’ll go: ‘See you later!’,” the 57-year-old added. Everywhere Tuchel has been, he’s not been there very long because he goes in, he doesn’t care about upsetting people and by the time everybody’s had enough of him, he’s gone.
“I think that’s what England need. But I still think we’ll be sitting here in many years’ time and thinking what an unbelievable job Gareth Southgate did.”
Merson isn’t the only one to call out Foden. The Manchester City star was named PFA Player of the Year last season as Pep Guardiola’s team won the Premier League, but his struggles for club and country this term have also drawn criticism from Roy Keane.
“Listen, Foden won’t have that problem coming up about where he will be playing, because he won’t be playing [at all],” Keane said in ITV’s coverage of the Albania game. “I think he might be lacking in confidence. He’s definitely off it.
“His club form isn’t great, but we know he’s got that quality. Usually when Foden is at his best you’re sitting there thinking ‘something is going to happen’, but I wasn’t thinking that tonight.
“Usually when he cuts inside he’ll pick a pass out or get a shot away. He did none of that tonight and every time he got the ball I’m looking at him thinking ‘I don’t expect anything from Foden at the moment’. Wherever he’s playing you’ve got to affect the game in different ways and he didn’t do that tonight.”
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