Thomas Tuchel makes national anthem vow and reveals England plan for Harry Kane

The Three Lions boss has opened up on a number of difficult decisions for his first squad, including snubs for Nottingham Forest duo Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson

Thomas Tuchel says he feels he has to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, so won’t do so for his first England games.

The new manager says he wants to get to the point where supporters feel “he should sing it now, he’s one of our own”.

That may of course be dependent on results, as Tuchel said he wants to bring a greater Premier League “intensity” to the team. The 51-year-old’s first squad selection caused surprise, particularly with the call-ups of 34-year-old Jordan Henderson and 32-year-old Dan Burn, but he insisted that his team “should be built for now”.

Tuchel admitted that calls to excluded players like Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson were “difficult”, but it was only down to an abundance of options in their positions.

The German said he felt the need to “reward” Marcus Rashford for his recent resurgence and “make sure that he stays on track”, while stating that Reece James is going to “prove” he can still perform to the level that Tuchel wants.

Harry Kane will meanwhile play much closer to goal than he did under Gareth Southgate, as the manager said he will travel out to Saudi Arabia to watch Ivan Toney.

The anthem was of course going to come up as an early theme, especially after Tuchel’s meeting with Prince William, but he deftly handled any potential controversy with a smart answer.

“It did not come up [with Prince William] but I made my decision,” Tuchel said. “I think first of all, you have a very powerful, emotional and meaningful national anthem, and I could not be more proud to be on the sideline and be in charge of the English national team. It means everything. It means a lot to me, I can assure you. But I can feel because it is that meaningful and it is that emotional and it is so powerful the national anthem that I have to earn my right to sing it. I feel that it is not just a given. You cannot just sing it. That's why I decided that I will not sing it in my first matches.

Thomas Tuchel speaks to the media at Wembley Stadium (Ben Whitley/PA Wire)

“I will earn it with results, with building a group, with doing my job properly and by creating a feeling where maybe even you guys say at some point 'Now it's time that you sing it, it feels like you proper earn it and you're a proper English guy now'! Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like he should sing it now, he's one of our own, he's the English manager, he should sing it.”

Tuchel spoke of how he didn’t enjoy having to tell Nottingham Forest’s Gibbs-White and Elliott Anderson that they weren’t called up, but encouraged them for the future.

“For Morgan, it was a difficult phone call for me. And Elliot Anderson is a very difficult decision, but they agree with me when I called them. I feel that they agree with me when I call them. I feel that they agree there’s a Cole Palmer, there’s a Morgan Rogers, there’s a Jude Bellingham in their position. They compete of course with Nottingham Forest, they’re the high fliers of the season, I admire that… but there are guys in their position who prove the same level, even maybe on a basis of every three days, at Aston Villa, at Manchester, at Real Madrid.

“Everyone is very aware that you have to be on your very best level to make it to the squad.”

Tuchel admitted that could have applied to Rashford.

Tuchel has recalled Jordan Henderson to his squad (The FA via Getty Images)

“It would have been easy to give him a call and say ‘listen, Marcus, this is impressive but keep on going and let’s see in June’. And he would have maybe said ‘yeah, ok, let’s go’. But I felt I need to have him close now, that he does not go back. I had the feeling we need to reward him now, we need to feel him, he needs to be close to me, that he does not fall back into old routines.

“He is a complete package.”

Tuchel can envision Rashford playing off Kane, who he wants closer to goal.

“I saw him here for England dropping deeper and deeper in his game and this is maybe not exactly what we want with Harry,” Tuchel added. “When I worked with Harry we have laid out the plan for what we wanted for him and you can be sure he followed the plan and does what is needed so making him drop as a No. 9 is not a problem but it should be not as a No. 6 position. Dropping as a No. 10, turning and shooting from range and delivering from outside the box is not a problem but then we need to make sure that around him is enough speed and high position to take advantage of the space.”

As regards Kane’s erstwhile replacement, Toney, Tuchel said he narrowly missed out to Dominic Solanke.

Marcus Rashford’s move to Aston Villa has helped him earn an England recall (PA Wire)

“I think it will be important in the coming weeks to actually visit Toney to watch a game there live and watch maybe training live, to get more of a feeling for him,” Tuchel remarked. “He was on the list, it was a purely sporting decision for Dominic in the end, a very close decision but a sporting decision. It had nothing to do with the fact he plays in Saudi Arabia or that we don’t trust the level of the league there.”

Tuchel has included Reece James for now but wants to see if he has the same engine as during their time together at Chelsea.

“We need to see if he can do this,” Tuchel said of the Chelsea captain. “He needs to prove the point, to be honest, he needs to prove that he can do it.

“I’m aware he was exposed to less high-intensity work because he played a different role, he started playing in a back three, so with the ball they were building a back three with him which he did also for me at Chelsea. In Copenhagen he played in midfield so you are not exposed to high-intensity runs but the history and the numbers recently tell us it is possible so it’s on him to prove the point.”