Tuchel Drops Four England Stars, Claims They’re Being Outperformed – Truth or Overhyped?
Arsenal’s left back After having “outperformed” in previous weeks, Thomas Tuchel removed four England players from his November squad, including Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Lewis-Skelly was left out of this month’s World Cup qualifying matches against Serbia and Albania by England manager Tuchel, who carried out his previous remarks regarding him.
England squad revealed: Main storylines everyone’s talking about
• Media meltdown avoided as Bellingham’s return ends the drama
• Lewis-Skelly and Nico O’Reilly locked in a World Cup showdown
• Tuchel aware England’s Kane gamble leaves them one injury away from trouble
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• And seriously… how did everyone miss Alex Scott’s rise?
Tuchel’s remarks against Lewis-Skelly in October were a textbook example of ” A Manager sends warning to another Player.”
“Being a good citizen in camp alone won’t be sufficient for a year,” Tuchel stated. “You must consistently perform at the club level.”
In the upcoming month, performances for Arsenal will be crucial. Additionally, he benefits from the camps’ close vicinity and the fact that [the last one] was three weeks ago. Between then and now, Lewis-Skelly had little chance of earning another call-up.
In a Carabao Cup victory over Brighton, he contributed another outstanding, albeit completely different, assist after playing ninety minutes and producing a world-class assist against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
The teenager has given Mikel Arteta a problem when it comes to Premier League fixture selection when given the opportunity to start.
It’s reasonable, though, that the Spaniard has always favoured Riccardo Calafiori. Arsenal hasn’t given up a goal in the Premier League since September 28, five games ago, and Calafiori has hardly made a mistake.
Lewis-Skelly’s exclusion seems harsh, but in the end, it makes sense—especially in light of Nico O’Reilly’s performance for Manchester City.
Nico O’Reilly vs Myles Lewis-Skelly: Premier League 25/26 Breakdown
When it comes to numbers this season, O’Reilly clearly holds the edge.
Starts: The City youngster has six, compared to none for his Arsenal counterpart.
Minutes played: O’Reilly has clocked 596, while Lewis-Skelly has managed only 92.
Progressive carries per 90: O’Reilly averages 3.48, comfortably ahead of Lewis-Skelly’s 1.00.
xG + xAG per 90: Another clear gap — 0.23 for O’Reilly, 0.00 for Lewis-Skelly.
It just so happens that Lewis-Skelly, another young, English, natural midfielder, has made a breakthrough in the same position for a great club in a World Cup year, no less—while another young, English, natural midfielder is thriving at left-back for a top Premier League side.
You can argue over whether player is superior, but you can’t argue over who is playing more or having a better 2025–2026 season.
Lewis-Skelly regrettably deserves to be left out, especially in light of Tuchel’s remarks from last month, while O’Reilly merits his second England senior call-up.
It is now evident that the two are directly vying for a spot on the flight to North America the following summer.
In a perfect world, both would succeed, but each would need to have exceptional seasons.
Tuchel will probably want a natural left-back on his World Cup team since they are too similar stylistically and both are strong defensively.
Thomas Tuchel didn’t include Lewis-Skelly, Gibbs-White in the England squad
Lewis-Skelly, Morgan Gibbs-White, James Trafford, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were dropped by Tuchel for the straightforward reason that their replacements “outperformed” them.
“Myles was a very good teammate and played for us in the last camp in the World Cup qualifier in Riga, along with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Morgan Gibbs-White, and James Trafford,” Tuchel clarified on Friday.
However, as I mentioned previously, there is a component to it that involves performance and competition, and the door is always open for those who consistently deliver excellent performances.
“Nico O’Reilly, Alex Scott, Nick Pope, and Jude fared better in their roles than Myles, Ruben, James, and Morgan.
Myles just needs more minutes and more starts. Nico O’Reilly is a little ahead for this camp because he has so many starts at that position.
Should we say the England manager is fair or he’s bias ?
Honestly In a nutshell, let’s just say he’s being fair. Because Lack of minutes is the problem with Lewis-Skelly, Trafford, and Loftus-Cheek.
It’s a little different with Gibbs-White, but when Jude Bellingham is compared, the argument ends quickly.
Despite earlier labelling the midfielder’s on-field conduct “repulsive,” Tuchel included Bellingham despite the fact that he wasn’t fit long enough to receive a call-up last month and there were concerns about this one.
In his last two La Liga games for Real Madrid, including the El Clasico victory, Bellingham has scored two goals and provided one assist. Additionally, he scored the lone goal in the Champions League victory over Juventus.
For a Nottingham Forest squad that has only won one domestic game this season, Gibbs-White only managed to score his first Premier League goal on matchday 10.
It all boils down to playing time in the cases of Loftus-Cheek v. Alex Scott and Trafford v. Nick Pope. Nevertheless, Scott and Pope have both performed well enough to be included this month.
Ollie Watkins, a striker for Aston Villa, is another noteworthy absence, which Tuchel attributes to his lack of fitness. We have a lot of talented strikers, so nobody needs to be anxious. “One of them is Ollie,” Tuchel remarked.
“We simply recognise that Ollie is currently playing through discomfort, and we were able to see it when we closely observed him.” “Bringing him into camp in this state really didn’t make any sense.
“We then decided to give him this break so he could receive treatment and return to full physical capacity and optimal condition before competing for the position once more in March.”
That’s reasonable enough. The biggest worry is that Harry Kane will be Tuchel’s only striker in the World Cup qualifying matches against Serbia and Albania.
