Joe Cole believes England’s World Cup campaign will ‘not end well’ if Thomas Tuchel makes a similar mistake to his predecessor Gareth Southgate. England kickstart their tournament against Croatia in Dallas on Wednesday, with the Three Lions looking to go one further than their runners-up finish at the European Championship two years ago.
It has not been the perfect build-up for England, who have to deal with equipment thieves and a change to their 26-man squad following an injury to Tino Livramento. But warm-up victories against New Zealand and Costa Rica have Tuchel’s side hopeful of laying down a marker after slip-ups from several of the favourites in the early stages of the tournament.
Selection dilemmas ahead of opener
Tuchel is still weighing up a couple of selection dilemmas ahead of England’s opener, particularly which one of Morgan Rogers and Jude Bellingham will start behind Harry Kane. The German tactician hinted earlier in the week that he could ‘easily’ play both attacking midfielders in the same system, having previously played Rogers out on the right wing for England.
But former England winger Cole has insisted that Tuchel must not fall back into England’s old habit of trying to crowbar all of their best players into the same starting lineup.
‘I think his approach thus far has been really refreshing,’ Cole told Metro. ‘I think going back to Gareth, he came in on the back of an era when we lost our way for about four years, it wasn’t great and the standard of players had gone down for whatever reason.
‘So we had an opportunity just to get players in, got good camaraderie, built a system and then he went from that. But then all of a sudden, players become superstars and then we sort of went back into the old era towards the back end of Gareth, where I think he probably felt it wasn’t just 11 men out there.
‘A few of them had gravitas now, they were champions, they were this, they were that, so I felt Gareth was battling against falling back into the old way.
‘Thomas has come and gone right, bang, we’re resetting. We’ve got all of these great players, champions and some of them are superstars: Declan Rice, Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, but I am the boss.
‘And I think he’s done that and he’s chosen a way to play, chosen a philosophy, chosen a type of player that he wants, and he’s going to run with it.
‘I’m personally very excited about that, so long as he sticks with that approach. If he falls back into those old ways, it’s not going to end well.’
Cole on pitting players against each other
After months of speculation, it is Bellingham who appears to be in the driving seat to start at No10 ahead of Rogers in England’s World Cup opener. The Real Madrid star impressed in England’s two warm-ups, but Cole is adamant that Rogers will also have a pivotal role to play if England are to reach the latter stages of the tournament.
‘I think we’ve got to get out of the habit of, and we won’t, because everyone wants to know who’s going to start,’ he added. ‘We all like to compare, ultimately we’ve got to forget about the individuals, and it’s about the collective.
‘I think we’re so bad at that in this country, and I had it myself, with pitting players against each other. You’re an individual at heart as a footballer, because you fight so hard just to become a footballer, and then you’ve got to put your ego to the side, give yourself to your team every week.
‘And if the game finishes, and you might have played and you might not have played, but you’ve still got to have a dinner together. It’s a real complex thing that you’ve got to manage.
‘These boys have got to go into this tournament knowing that some of them are going to be the superstar, some of them are going to play every minute, some of them are going to play no minutes, but regardless of their own personal situation, they’ve got to give themselves to the group, and that goes with whoever’s starting, whoever’s not.’
Group stage and beyond
After the match-up against Croatia, England will round out their group-stage campaign with fixtures against Ghana and Panama. And if England are to go deep in the tournament, Cole said fans will have to pay little attention to their group-stage performances.
‘We don’t know what this Thomas Tuchel team will truly be capable of because the way you play against Ghana and Croatia would be very different to how you play against Argentina and Brazil and Spain,’ he said.
‘So I want to see us really good off the ball, really tight on set pieces, and I want to see speed, aggression, physicality, dribbling from Gordon, Rashford, Saka, Madueke, Bellingham, and Harry Kane is Harry Kane so he’s going to score goals.
‘If we can do all of that, we’ll be in with a real good shout.’
Joe Cole was speaking to the Metro as part of his role as ambassador for Enterprise’s #OnEveryCorner program, which gives fans in the UK and Ireland a chance to win a car when a corner kick leads to a corner kick goal. To enter, participants must post #OnEveryCorner and #Sweepstakes and tag @Enterprise on X or via OnEveryCorner.com from June 11 to July 19, 2026.
