As the Lee Carsley interim era comes to an end, Thomas Tuchel must now set to work shaping an England squad capable of winning the 2026 World Cup.
Yet whereas he has a plethora of options in outfield positions and the difficulty will be fitting them in a cohesive team, goalkeeper remains a problematic position.
Jordan Pickford has been England’s No 1 throughout Gareth Southgate’s time, but in seven years he has rarely had a convincing challenger for his place and has always been the solid, dependable goalkeeper, rather than an outstanding one.
The most obvious options for Tuchel to try a different approach are Dean Henderson, at Crystal Palace, Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope, and Aaron Ramsdale, forced to move to Southampton in the summer after he was replaced as Arsenal’s first choice. None feel like a significant upgrade.
Is it time for a fresh approach to find England’s next No 1?
There is a young wildcard quietly working wonders in the Championship, a clean sheet specialist who set records as a European Championship winning Under-21 goalkeeper and honed his passing game at Manchester City – the latter a vital attribute under Tuchel.
James Trafford is the 6ft 6ins 22-year-old helping Burnley maintain the best defensive record in the Championship. He’s kept eight clean sheets in 14 matches, while Burnley have conceded only six times in the league all season.
Trafford left Manchester City in a permanent transfer to Burnley in 2023 for £19m – making him the third-most expensive English goalkeeper ever, behind Pickford and Ramsdale.
Playing for relegation favourites in the Premier League at 20 was always going to be a brutal introduction to elite senior football, and his struggles matched Burnley’s. But his reputation is soaring this season in the second tier.
Those who know Trafford speak of a humble lad from a farming family in Cumbria (he went viral after signing a five-year contract at City and saying he didn’t want much and would probably spend his wages on ice cream) with an impressive inner confidence that does not cross over into arrogance.
When he went on his first loan at Accrington Stanley as an 18-year-old he told people he would play for England. And he has matched his confidence with performances.
On loan at Bolton he became the club’s first goalkeeper to keep four clean sheets in his first four games and later set a record of nine consecutive home clean sheets.
When England Under-21s won the 2023 European Championship he became the first goalkeeper to keep clean sheets in all six games and was the hero of the final when he made a stunning penalty and rebound double save in second-half stoppage time with England leading Spain by a single goal.
“I told everyone this morning I was going to save a penalty, I knew I was going to save it,” he said afterwards.
City signed Trafford from Carlisle when he was 12 and he was a teammate of Cole Palmer in the youth team. “Even in training, he’s so hard to score past,” Palmer said. “I’m just glad everyone else is seeing it.
“He knows himself how good he is but he’s not arrogant. He’s a nice lad. He’s a normal lad who believes in himself.
“When he first came, everyone was thinking, ‘Who’s this kid?’ As time went on, everyone was looking at each other, like ‘wow’.
“He just goes about his business on his own. I always say to him – even when we were little – that he is going to be world class.”
Guardiola took a shine to the player when he saved his penalty in a training ground shootout. He liked his personality – as well as his ability – and took him along with the squad for the 2021 Champions League final, in Porto, for the experience.
City were clearly aware of the talent they were letting go when they insisted on a buy-black clause being included in the deal and another ensuring they received 20 per cent of his next transfer fee.
Maybe he will need to take that step up to be considered for England. But Tuchel has been known to make left-field choices – like the time as Mainz manager when he commissioned tactics bloggers to work on opposition scouting reports, including Rene Maric, who went on to become Bayern Munich’s assistant manager. If there is a box, Tuchel will happily look outside it.
One of Southgate’s great strengths was using England to give talented young footballers coming through at academies a platform to prove to their clubs they could compete at the highest level. Mason Mount was a prime example.
Southgate was impressed enough by Trafford to include him in the provisional England squad for Euro 2024.
Pickford is a great shot-stopper, but his distribution is below the level of rival goalkeepers and he has often felt like an accident waiting to happen.
England were reminded of that in the shock defeat to Greece at Wembley in October, when he tried to control the ball outside his area only to give it away to Anastasios Bakasetas, who went for goal and was denied by a phenomenal sprint back and clearance on the line by Levi Colwill.
And in March against Belgium, in England’s final game before travelling to Germany, when he passed straight to Amadou Onana before conceding.
Tuchel’s appointment is arguably the greatest challenge Pickford has had to his dominance of the England goalkeeper jersey. Confronted with the prospect, he responded in typically bullish fashion. “I’ll work my bollocks off,” he said.
Tuchel made no bones of the fact he is prepared to upset people when he starts work.
“This comes with the job, unpopular decisions and, of course, with a job as a national coach, decisions that some supporters maybe don’t like or don’t understand,” he said at his first press conference. “But we will from January look for the best group of players. We will maybe not necessarily look for the 24 best individuals, but we will look for the best group.”
Adding that the job “comes with difficult decisions” and that he “will not be shy of taking them”.
If England are to win the next World Cup, choosing who should play in goal may well prove the hardest of them all.
