Thomas Tuchel takes backward step to get England on front foot with Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford recalls, writes IAN LADYMAN

Thomas Tuchel will seek to move England forwards whilst looking backwards.

Back to Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford. Back to a focus on traditional English football values. A day for breaking new ground, this was not.

All international managers like to arrive with a surprise in tow, a new idea or a fresh face. Tuchel ticked that box yesterday but not in the way anybody had expected.

The new English coach’s mic drop moment came with the announcement that Henderson, 34, was on his list of 23 for Albania and Latvia. This is the first step forward in Henderson’s career since he quit Liverpool for Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2023 and then moved on to Ajax a few months later. If the former Anfield captain saw this call-up coming, then he was the only one.

Tuchel talked a lot about mentality and environment in explaining his decision. He said that Henderson embodied what he wishes his England squad to be in terms of character. When he was informed that Henderson will be 36 by the time the next World Cup starts in America in the summer of 2026, he seemed surprised.

However, we cannot criticise the new head coach for being unsure of what he wants. Tuchel – a Champions League winner with Chelsea just four seasons ago – had some clear messages for some players he has called up and some that he hasn’t. Even his captain Harry Kane did not escape.

Jordan Henderson earned his first national team call-up since his last cap in November 2023

Marcus Rashford’s last cap came in March 2024, as he was omitted from the Euro 2024 squad

‘I saw him here for England dropping deeper and deeper in his game,’ said Tuchel sitting in a Wembley executive box.

‘This is maybe not exactly what we want.’

Tuchel didn’t duck anything he was asked as he revealed his squad for next week’s qualifying double header against teams ranked 65 and 140 in the world. He remains as urbane and assured as we remember from his spell at Stamford Bridge.

When he was told that Henderson had this week served a ban for telling a referee to ‘f*** off’, he replied that he thought that was Jude Bellingham’s gig. It was a decent line.

This is a rather underwhelming squad, nevertheless. No Conor Gallagher, no Jarrad Branthwaite, no Morgan Gibbs-White, no Adam Wharton, no Angel Gomes. Instead it’s a return to more familiar faces.

Rashford has done okay at Aston Villa, Kyle Walker likewise in Milan. But a look down the list of names sees only Arsenal’s Miles Lewis-Skelly as a clear nod to the future and even then Tuchel explained he was reluctant to call him up for fear of over-exposure. In the end, injuries to other left-footed players changed his mind.

There has been some thoroughness at least. In leaving out players such as Gibbs-White and Jack Grealish, he made phone calls to explain himself. In terms of Ivan Toney, Tuchel revealed that he intends to travel to Saudi Arabia to watch him before long. Here – with Ollie Watkins injured – Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke got the spot as Kane’s back up and it’s hard to argue with that one.

What there is about Tuchel is a calmness and a self-confidence which is perhaps as well, given the testing moments that tend to arise for all England managers. The 51-year-old is only due to be around for 18 months, but you can throw a lot of banana skins in a year and a half.

Tuchel opted for fewer of the new faces that were seen in the England squad under Lee Carsley

Equally, it was interesting to hear him talk about the way he wishes his England team to play.

We have spent the best part of three decades – perhaps since the days of Terry Venables’ England – beating ourselves up for a supposed lack of sophistication when it comes to our national team.

Managers such as Gareth Southgate and the interim Lee Carsley strove almost constantly to be free of the label, insisting that our academies had finally produced technically-adept players to match those scattered across Europe and beyond.

If last summer’s scratchy displays in somehow reaching the finals of the Euros went some way to dissuading us of that notion, Tuchel appears intent on relying once more on a little more of what our players live and breathe on a domestic weekend.

‘The Premier League is a very physical, demanding and direct league,’ he said.

‘I think we should be brave enough to play like an England squad. We should not try to copy other nations, other styles too much.

‘I think we should reflect the values of the country and of the strongest league in the world. We want to see glimpses of the Premier League in the national team.‘So we will try to implement a direct style, an attacking style and try to do it, of course, in a crash course from Monday onwards and unleash the potential for Friday.’

One of the challenges facing Tuchel is that his England side will not face a team of any great merit in a competitive game between now and start of the World Cup. He spoke yesterday of having six games and 60 days and those matches will be against Albania, Latvia, Andorra and Serbia.

The former Chelsea boss has insisted that his England side will implement ‘an attacking style’

Maybe this why he initially seems reluctant to be a little braver, a little bolder and more forward thinking. Maybe an 18-month contract points towards pragmatism. Maybe that in turn plays to a more fundamental issue. Why appoint a coach with such a restrictive and restricted brief in the first place?

And maybe that brings us back to where we started and the debate about Henderson. With no Kobbie Mainoo – injured – and with Kalvin Phillips having fallen from relevance, the conversation Southgate always used to initiate about the lack of world class players in the midfield pivot positions feels as pertinent as ever.

Tuchel was not invited to explain why he had overlooked Gallagher. Maybe that’s a question for next week. He insisted yesterday that Henderson’s call up did not indicate a lack of alternative quality, rather a desire to inject a little of the player’s wisdom and personality back into the England squad.

Most clearly, Tuchel spoke here of Henderson’s recall being for the long-term. This does not sound like the short-term plugging of a hole. It sounds for all the world like a policy shift. For good reason or bad, that was perhaps the most startling message of all.