Cole Palmer's Rise: A Dilemma for England's Squad
Cole Palmer has kicked the new season’s door clean off its hinges. Four goals, two assists in six games for Chelsea, and a telepathic understanding with Morgan Rogers and Joao Pedro that has lit up the early weeks. He looks like a player reborn.
“Cole has his numbers back,” Thomas Tuchel said. “Assists, decisive goals. I think he has a point to prove.”
Tuchel had left him out of the World Cup squad. In hindsight, that snub might have been the making of him. Palmer staggered through last season after the Club World Cup, injured, drained and unrecognisable. Now he’s rested, sharper, and again playing like a man who wants to run games, not just appear in them.
Could even that weary, below-par version have helped England in North America? Many will insist he could. That debate will run. But it’s already yesterday’s argument.
The real question is what Tuchel does with this version of Palmer now.
Palmer vs the pecking order
The No 10 shirt is no longer up for grabs. Jude Bellingham nailed it down at the World Cup and turned the role into his personal stage. The Real Madrid star was one of the tournament’s standout performers. Out wide, Bukayo Saka is flying again on the right for Arsenal. On the left, Anthony Gordon has taken his England form to Barcelona and looks at home on the wing.
Rogers complicates things further. Tuchel trusts him. The Chelsea forward has become central to England’s attacking structure. Getting both Rogers and Palmer into the same XI without unbalancing the side is a puzzle, but an enticing one. This is the kind of headache managers secretly enjoy: too many good attackers, not enough spaces.
Tuchel’s squad is heavy with creative talent. Palmer is back in the room. Now he has to prove he belongs at the heart of it.
Mainoo’s second chance
Kobbie Mainoo has heard all the talk about England’s midfield competition. At the World Cup, he watched it from the bench. He was the only outfield player not to play a single minute.
This time, Tuchel has drawn a line under that.
“I expect him to be on the pitch and it’s my duty to get him on the pitch,” the England manager said. “That was totally on me. He didn’t put a foot wrong during the World Cup.”
Mainoo’s attitude impressed Tuchel. No sulking, no complaints. Just quiet standards in training while others were preferred. Reece James was even used in central midfield. Elliot Anderson shone. Declan Rice remained untouchable at the base.
“We trusted them more than we trusted Kobbie,” Tuchel admitted. “It was difficult for him. It was on me.”
Mainoo has started this season strongly for Manchester United and remains in a crowded midfield picture. But a three-week camp and four fixtures should give him the chances that never came in North America. Tuchel has made the promise. Now he has to honour it.
Trent’s recall and a change of heart
Trent Alexander-Arnold wearing an England shirt should not be a shock. Yet this call-up is exactly that.
Tuchel had been blunt before. Alexander-Arnold, he felt, did not fit the profile of right-back he wanted. Even when Tino Livramento was injured before the World Cup and a replacement could have been summoned, Trent stayed at home. The omission jarred with Tuchel’s own complaints about England’s struggles to keep the ball under pressure.
Now the Real Madrid defender is back.
“He was never non-selectable,” Tuchel said. “Now is his chance to show, come to camp, be the best version of himself. He comes as a right-back for us.”
The numbers this season for Real Madrid are modest: one assist in five appearances. He has even been used in midfield in the Champions League against Inter Milan, with Jose Mourinho praising his effort but also highlighting his turnovers and the physical demands of the role.
At right-back, Alexander-Arnold is still fighting. Last season he battled Dani Carvajal. This season it is Denzel Dumfries pushing him. The technical brilliance on the ball is still there. The questions about his defending have not vanished.
Tuchel’s U-turn is one of the most intriguing threads of this international break. How he uses Alexander-Arnold now – and what that signals for the long term – will be watched closely.
From control to chaos?
After the World Cup defeat to Argentina, Tuchel attacked England’s “DNA”, accusing his players of lacking the ability to control high-pressure games with the ball, like Spain.
Bringing back Palmer and Alexander-Arnold looks like an admission that some of England’s best technicians were left out. Yet Tuchel’s tone has shifted. On Friday, he suggested England might be better served by leaning into their wilder side.
“The more I reflect on it, it’s more buying into our strengths and playing more like in the second half against Croatia, or first half against France,” he said. “We get a lot of value out of it. This is what the Premier League reflects.”
Control, he knows, is seductive for a coach. But England’s 6-4 thriller against France has stayed with him.
“If you look at the 6-4 against France, people talk about it like it’s one of their nicest experiences ever to watch a football match,” Tuchel said. “Maybe I have to compromise in my wish for control – maybe we need more chaos, to embrace the chaos. Maybe it brings out the best.
“We will adjust our style but always to put the strengths of the players on the first priority.”
If Tuchel is serious about that, then players like Palmer and Alexander-Arnold, who thrive in broken games and quick transitions, suddenly look less like luxuries and more like central pieces.
Gibbs-White squeezed out
Morgan Gibbs-White has every right to feel aggrieved. Fifteen Premier League goals and four assists for Nottingham Forest last season. A key figure in their survival. He has carried that form into this campaign.
It still wasn’t enough.
The No 10 queue is brutal. Palmer is back. Bellingham is immovable. Rogers is in. Eberechi Eze is there too. Tuchel spelled it out.
“He was close but it’s always the same,” he said. “It makes no sense to choose three, four or five No 10s. It just doesn’t help anyone. We can see the form that Morgan is in. He ended the season strongly and was the key player for Forest to not be relegated.”
Gibbs-White will look at Eze’s inclusion and wonder. The Arsenal playmaker has not started a Premier League game this season and had roughly half Gibbs-White’s league goal involvements last term. On form alone, the case is obvious.
But Tuchel has thrown the gauntlet down to Palmer as much as to Gibbs-White.
“It’s one thing to be chosen, like Cole, and get your ticket back to the squad, but it’s another thing to perform for England,” he said. “Cole, especially, needs to step up when he comes and show these kinds of numbers and performances to get his place, keep his shirt and justify the nomination.”
For Gibbs-White, the message is harsh but clear: keep producing, stay ready, and hope someone ahead of you blinks.
Foden on the outside
Phil Foden knows this feeling too. Another No 10, another casualty of a stacked position.
Left out of Tuchel’s World Cup squad, the Manchester City star did at least make the squads in March and November 2025. This time he is nowhere to be seen.
His start to the season had been encouraging until a red card in the Manchester derby cut across his momentum. Now he faces a brutal fight to climb back into Tuchel’s thoughts, with the manager turning again to other technicians like Alexander-Arnold.
For a player of Foden’s talent, this omission will sting. It also underlines how unforgiving this England setup has become in that central creative band.
A new generation breaks through
Tuchel’s latest squad looks very different to the one he took to the World Cup. Experience has made way for youth.
Jordan Henderson, Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins are out. In come Myles Lewis-Skelly, Alex Scott and Rio Ngumoha – all under 23, with Ngumoha having turned 18 less than a month ago.
Ngumoha’s selection jumps off the page. The Liverpool teenager travelled with England’s pre-tournament camp in Florida and has featured in five of their six games this season. He has no goals or assists yet, but his impact has been enough to convince Tuchel he belongs at the next level.
Lewis-Skelly’s case is simpler. He has been outstanding for unbeaten leaders Arsenal, dictating from deep, registering two assists and keeping £75m signing Bruno Guimaraes out of the starting XI. That sort of authority from a young midfielder is hard to ignore.
Scott, meanwhile, has built on a superb 2025/26 season at Bournemouth, where he was arguably the key cog in a side that qualified for European football for the first time. Those performances brought links to Chelsea and Manchester United. Now they have brought him an England call.
“We had three players in prep camp with us [before the World Cup], Alex Scott, Rio Ngumoha and Josh [King], all three of them were fantastic members of the squad,” Tuchel said. “Not only because they were nice and reliable and excellent characters, but they showed the quality, courage and curiosity on the pitch, which was very nice to see.”
Whether this leads to a tactical overhaul is unclear. What is clear is Tuchel’s willingness to rip up the hierarchy and let the next wave in.
The squad, the stakes, the storm ahead
Tuchel’s first post-World Cup squad is stacked with storylines. Palmer back and burning. Alexander-Arnold recalled. Mainoo promised minutes. Gibbs-White and Foden left to watch from afar. Ngumoha, Lewis-Skelly and Scott stepping into the light.
Here is the group tasked with navigating a demanding Nations League schedule:
- Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Jason Steele (Brighton & Hove Albion), James Trafford (Leeds United)
- Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Real Madrid), Jarrad Branthwaite (Everton), Trevoh Chalobah (Como), Marc Guéhi (Manchester City), Lewis Hall (Newcastle United), Ezri Konsa (Arsenal), Tino Livramento (Newcastle United), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), Jarrell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen)
- Midfielders: Elliot Anderson (Manchester City), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Alex Scott (AFC Bournemouth)
- Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds United), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal), Anthony Gordon (Barcelona), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Rio Ngumoha (Liverpool), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Morgan Rogers (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
England face Spain at home on September 26, then travel to the Czech Republic on September 29 and Croatia on October 3. Three high-stakes games, three different tests of Tuchel’s new ideas.
If he really is ready to “embrace the chaos”, this is where we find out whether that chaos becomes England’s greatest weakness – or their most dangerous weapon.
