All managers in England like to have an impact on their first significant work day, and we have waited for a while by Thomas Tuchel.
But there would not have been money that Jordan Henderson received a soccer desert route for the double headquarters of the next week of the next week against Albania and Latvia in Wembley.
Tuchel is less than 18 months to gather a team to win the World Cup in the summer of 2026. Henderson, recently abandoned in Ajax after his disastrous transfer to Saudi Arabia, will be 36 by then. Is this really the way to follow for the new chief coach of England? It is difficult to say that it is and the tastes of Conor Gallagher, seen scoring in the last 16 of the Champions League for Atlético de Madrid only this week, and Morgan Gibbs-White, knocking out the lights for Nottingham Forest, you must feel desperately hard for not making the Tuchel list.
There are other great calls on the sheet. Marcus Rashford returns after his rebirth in Aston Villa, while Newcastle Dan Burn's defender is for the first time, called by the Mail Sport soccer chief, Craig Hope, Thursday night. Dominic Solanke also received a place ahead of Oilie Watkins and Ivan Toney.
But it is in the center of the central field where Tuchel has made his first really big call. His predecessor Gareth Southgate and, in fact, Lee Carsley, who supervised the qualifiers of the League of Nations on an interim way, often talked about England's problem in position number six, or 'pivot' as he used to call him.
The Arsenal Declan rice is the first selection in that position, but the disappearance of Kalvin Phillips has left a hole still to fill. Carsley tried Angel Gomes de Lille, while Kobbie Mainoo of Manchester United jumped to fame in the European championship last summer.
Thomas Tuchel has put the cat among the pigeons with his first England team for this month's international series
The veteran Ajax midfielder Jordan Henderson has returned to the side after a time in the cold
The notable omissions of the new manager include Morgan Gibbs-White of Nottingham Forest
But with past gums and injured Maino, it is difficult to see in particular how a player like Gallagher does not do this selection.
Henderson's time in Ajax has been less than spectacular and his last minutes at Amsterdam Club have not been overwhelming. In fact, the last time we really saw it was in January when he faced a Dutch journalist who had accused him of pressing so that a transfer window moved to Monaco.
There is no doubt Henderson's commitment to England. The former Liverpool captain was a pillar for many years, a quiet and intelligent presence in the heart of the center of the field of England, since they advanced in the euros of 2021 and, in fact, in the Qatar World Cup that followed.
The 34 -year -old was a regular member of the Southgate leadership group and a voice in the England costumes that everyone listened to. But his move to Saudi in the summer of 2023 saw him leave the map rather. It has been known for a while that I would appreciate a transfer to the Premier League, but no acceptable offers were presented and maybe that tells us a lot.
But now he returned with England and Tuchel will live or die for that decision. To mistakenly quote a famous Sir Alex Ferguson line: 'Boys, it is only Albania and Latvia' and it is true that England must pass these two games comfortably whoever Tuchel sends blank, blank,
But in terms of Henderson and the 2026 World Cup, it is much more difficult to square the circle. Tuchel, named all the way in October, has delivered his first moment of microphone fall.