GRAEME SOUNESS: It’s a load of rubbish to fuss over whether Thomas Tuchel works from home or not – there’s only one thing he needs to deliver as England manager

The fuss over whether Thomas Tuchel works from his Munich home or is based in London is, quite frankly, a load of rubbish.

As always, results and performances will dictate whether the decision for an England manager to live outside this country is seen as a positive or a negative. It’s always about results.

He will have his eyes on the ground with his assistant Anthony Barry, but we also live in an age when you can watch any game in the world live on a thing called a television if you wish to do so.

Alternatively, he can jump on a two-hour flight to London when necessary, which is generally quicker than using motorways or trains to get around the country these days.

The great advantage Tuchel possesses over previous foreign England managers such as Fabio Capello and Sven-Goran Eriksson, of course, is that he has worked in this country beforehand. He is more of an Anglophile than they ever were.

He was responsible for one of the most memorable periods in Chelsea’s recent history. Winning the Champions League in 2021, his first season at Stamford Bridge, before collecting the Club World Cup and Super Cup.

Losing a guy who won the biggest trophy in club football, what a stroke of genius that was from the boffins that inhabit Chelsea’s boardroom

As always, results and performances will dictate whether the decision for an England manager to live outside this country is seen as a positive or a negative

When you consider that period, it’s nigh on amazing that the geniuses who took over Chelsea in May 2022 somehow managed to spend £250million on new players yet still fell out so spectacularly with Tuchel that they sacked him barely a week into the following September.

Losing a guy who won the biggest trophy in club football, what a stroke of genius that was from the boffins that inhabit Chelsea’s boardroom. How ironic that £1billion down the line they are still nowhere near repeating that success.

He obviously had some connection with his players of the time because they still felt comfortable enough to invite him to a private party in London last week.

I think it’s encouraging for the country too that Tuchel is ready to name Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri in his first squad.

Playing for a big football club brings its own pressures and these two have handled everything that has been thrown at them so far, and comfortably.

Although I’ve never met Lewis-Skelly, the young full back looks to have a real edge to him. He wants to take on the very best. 

I am not sure about mocking Erling Haaland’s goal celebrations, but he is more than prepared to put his head above the parapet knowing full well there is incoming flak heading his way.

Being picked for England won’t faze him whatsoever and he will respond in the same positive way he has taken on every challenge thrown at him so far. He’ll be saying ‘this is my stage’, and I love that.

Ethan Nwaneri isn’t 18 until the end of the month but, having made his league debut at 15, he’s another fearless prospect

Being picked for England won’t faze Myles Lewis-Skelly whatsoever and he will respond in the same positive way he has taken on every challenge thrown at him so far

Nwaneri isn’t 18 until the end of the month but, having made his league debut at 15, he’s another fearless prospect who has scored in the Champions League and Premier League this season. 

It says much for their progress that they will have significant roles to play for Arsenal against Manchester United on Sunday. 

Hopefully, they will get their chance to come on for England against Albania and Latvia at some stage this month, but Tuchel’s main objective is to bank six points and play front-foot football that will get fans on the edge of their seats.

England managed to make the final of the European Championship last summer but the country wants to see their team play a style of football that has a less pragmatic approach.

Tuchel will be looking to see what he can adjust and tweak to get a more adventurous style out of this extremely talented group of players that England possess right now.

I like him, and I think he will do well for England and this new generation.

Liverpool’s name could be on the European Cup already

The value of having a top goalkeeper was evident as Harvey Elliott scored Liverpool’s winner against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night.

The value of having a top goalkeeper was evident as Harvey Elliott scored Liverpool’s winner against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night

If Alisson had been in goal for PSG, he would have saved that. Liverpool should have been looking at an irretrievable result on Thursday morning, but for their goalkeeper’s heroics

If Alisson had been in goal for PSG, he would have saved that. 

Liverpool should have been looking at an irretrievable result on Thursday morning and the very real possibility of being knocked out of the Champions League, but for their goalkeeper’s heroics. 

I played with two great keepers at Liverpool, Ray Clemence and Bruce Grobbelaar, who would win us important points every season that led us to silverware.

Indeed, there are two positions in football which are often damned or feted by black and white statistics: striker and goalkeeper. How many goals you score in how many games or how many goals you let in.

There is little hiding place. If you make a mistake as a keeper, it can play on your mind. Just like a golfer missing a putt, you need to be able to park it and reset your concentration levels where they need to be.

All goalies have to be a little bit mad. Brucie was properly mad but what a goalkeeper. He was the perfect example of someone who could park a mistake and switch back onto the game. He had a special mentality. The current Liverpool goalkeeper has that too.

I think the return game with PSG on Tuesday will be a very interesting contest. PSG know they should have won well and the way both teams approach the game will be well worth watching.

Watching the game in Paris though and the way it panned out I couldn’t help thinking, just maybe, Liverpool’s name is on the trophy already.

Bruce Grobbelaar was properly mad but what a goalkeeper. He was the perfect example of someone who could park a mistake and switch back onto the game

When ‘Sparky’ nearly sparked out Taribo West! 

Mark Hughes and Kenny Dalglish used to be the worst five-a-side players I witnessed yet, come Saturday, played like two greats of our game.

Kenny would never admit he wasn’t very good, but ‘Sparky’ would accept it. He used to say to me ‘I need to smell the hamburgers on matchday to be at my best!’

I have to admire his appetite for still wanting to get out of bed in the mornings and make the not so easy trip to manage Carlisle United, facing relegation out of the Football League.

It shows a real love for the game and, with respect to Carlisle’s players, he’ll be working with less talented individuals than he has been used to through his career.

When I was manager at Blackburn Rovers for the League Cup final against Spurs in 2002, we had Gary Flitcroft and Tugay missing so he had to play in midfield and he, literally, ran the show.

He was one of those guys to whom you could say ‘I’m sorry I need you to play in goal today’, and he’d reply: ‘OK, no problem.’ He was totally reliable, an absolute dream to manage and to have in your dressing room.

Once we were playing Derby County in an FA Cup tie and they were 1-0 up at half-time. Their defender Taribo West was leaving a bit on some of our lads, so I called ‘Sparky’ over and said: ‘let him have one.’

Mark Hughes’ decision to take the Carlisle United job shows a real love for the game

He was one of those guys to whom you could say ‘I’m sorry I need you to play in goal today’, and he’d reply: ‘OK, no problem.’

He was totally reliable, an absolute dream to manage and to have in your dressing room

The next thing you know, before the game had restarted, he’s elbowed West right in the chops, sweet under the chin.

I’d hate to know what he would have done if I’d said, ‘sort him out properly’. Wherever ‘Sparky’ went from then on, West avoided, and we won 5-2.

When people talk about tough guys in the game and point to defenders who used to go through the back of strikers, there’s nothing tough about that.

The real tough guys were people like Hughes and Dalglish who used to take those challenges all through games and still go back for more.

They were two great players who were also two tough men. I wish ‘Sparky’ all the very best taking on his latest challenge.