Jude Bellingham Reflects on England's Euro 2024 Journey and Tuchel's Brotherhood
Jude Bellingham doesn’t dress it up. For all the noise around England’s run to the Euro 2024 final, for all the late drama and big moments, he says the foundations were wrong.
Things, he admits, were off.
“We got a few things wrong”
Now in the United States preparing for a World Cup under Thomas Tuchel, Bellingham has offered a blunt assessment of that summer in Germany, when England staggered their way to the final before losing to Spain.
"At the Euros I think we got a few things wrong off the pitch, I don’t feel the group connected as well as it could have for a number of reasons," he said from inside England’s camp.
The expectation was suffocating. Gareth Southgate’s squad arrived as one of the favourites. Bellingham felt the weight of that.
"When it came to the tournament, we were seen as one of two or three teams that could win it," he said. "We weren’t playing well, which doesn’t help, so even when we were winning, we didn’t get the feeling that we were as happy as we should be."
The performances backed him up. England lurched through the knockouts: rescued by Bellingham’s outrageous overhead kick in the last minute against Slovakia, dragged past Switzerland on penalties, then spared again by a late winner against the Netherlands in the semi-finals. A run held together by moments, not by cohesion.
Tuchel, watching from afar back then, has made that his starting point. He has spoken openly of wanting a "brotherhood" in the squad, a tighter, more connected group as he chases the biggest prize of all this summer. Bellingham’s words underline why that message has landed so firmly.
A miracle goal that still stings
For many, Bellingham’s bicycle kick against Slovakia has already been spliced into England’s tournament folklore. For him, it still carries a sting.
The Real Madrid midfielder remembers the feeling more than the finish.
"I still remember how I was feeling at the time. It always makes me feel a bit uncomfortable because it was such a bad situation," he said.
"We weren't playing well. I remember as a kid watching World Cups and Euros where we crashed out against teams we shouldn’t have gone out to and I remember thinking, 'Wow, I’m about to be a part of one of those moments’. It shakes up the whole of English football."
The goal spared England from becoming another cautionary tale. It did not, in his mind, disguise the problems that led them there.
Tuchel’s call: Bellingham or Rogers?
Two years on, Bellingham is no longer the rising star on the edge of things. He is the reference point, the player around whom opponents plan. Yet even he is not guaranteed a starting place when England open their World Cup campaign against Croatia on Wednesday.
Tuchel appears to have framed it as a straight fight for the No 10 role: Bellingham versus Morgan Rogers.
The twist? The rivalry sits on top of a long-standing friendship. The pair grew up in the same area of the West Midlands, shared pitches in junior football and have stayed close ever since.
Bellingham strengthened his claim with a commanding performance in the final warm-up game, a win over Costa Rica on Wednesday, but he insists there is no bitterness in the battle.
"As a person, he is a top guy, he can get along with anyone, can have conversations with anyone," Bellingham said of Rogers. "He can be a bit loud. We have debates that turn into arguments a lot. But we get on like brothers, to be fair."
Tuchel has been transparent. The players know the stakes.
"The manager has made it very clear in a lot of the times where he has spoken that we are playing for the same position," Bellingham explained. "I know that has eased up a bit more now that he sees me playing more positions and Morgs playing more positions, but I honestly have no ill feelings when he is playing and I’m not playing."
That line matters. Two players, one shirt, and yet no fractures. Exactly the sort of dynamic Tuchel wants as he tries to build the togetherness Bellingham felt was missing in Germany.
England arrive at this World Cup with scars from Euro 2024, a new voice on the touchline and a dressing room being reshaped around that idea of brotherhood. Bellingham has lived both versions of the national team: the one that reaches a final while feeling strangely disconnected, and the one now being pushed to bind tighter.
On Wednesday against Croatia, the question is simple. Does the new England look – and feel – any different when the pressure hits?
