Thomas Tuchel raps Cole Palmer for 'missing way too many camps'

Thomas Tuchel has cast doubt on Cole Palmer’s desire to play for his country.

Tuchel said ahead of Saturday's Nations League game against world champions Spain at Wembley ‘everybody is desperate to come’ and represent England.

But when it was suggested that Palmer’s decision to withdraw from the squad despite playing 90 minutes for Chelsea last Friday appeared to suggest otherwise, Tuchel said: ‘It’s hard to argue against what you are saying.’

Asked where it leaves Palmer and what advice he would give him were he his friend, Tuchel added: ‘It leaves us with Jude Bellingham, Morgan Rogers, Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze in that position.

‘All in camp. All desperate to be here. All available. And all ready to go, ready to stop a holiday [like Gibbs-White] after one day in Dubai.

‘I am not his friend. I am his national team coach and I can only judge him on what he is delivering for the national team and he is just missing too many opportunities.’

Palmer is one of five players to withdraw from Tuchel’s squad ahead of a four-game fortnight that also sees England face Czechia home and away and Croatia away.

The England coach does not doubt that Palmer is carrying an injury, as are Declan Rice and Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo.

Tuchel also stressed that the door is not closed on any player, saying he was ‘not worried’ about the issue.

Equally, he pulled no punches when it comes to the Chelsea player’s future opportunities.

‘My understanding is that Cole plays with discomfort and pain and he cannot compete on the highest level with discomfort and pain, so he withdrew and informed us and Chelsea informed us,’ Tuchel explained.

‘He misses too many opportunities, and I don't blame him for it. It's just the fact. He misses way too many camps with injuries and I only want to rely on what I personally witness and what I see within my team, and for that you have to be in camp.

‘If you're not in camp, there's a next level to impress that you cannot achieve because you only can do it when you're actually with me on the pitch and with us on the pitch so, yeah, it is a missed opportunity.

‘What sticks with me is the week that I have with the others.

‘They [the absentees] lose that. That sticks. It sticks because we create something.

‘We actually work off the field, on the field, about our principles, on how to be in.

‘This brotherhood is so important and you miss out if you’re not there.’

Tuchel’s England face a huge test against the world and European champions on Saturday night and knows he needs a good performance from his team after the disappointment of the semi-final defeat to Argentina in the summer’s World Cup.

But he has questioned the wisdom of the four-game international break imposed by world governing body FIFA, suggesting it will ask too much of players not yet fully recovered from the World Cup.

‘I am not in favour of it,’ he said.

‘After a long tournament, to have another long period together is very demanding emotionally and physically for the players. They played the tournament until the very last day and struggled to decompress and then have no pre-season,

‘I think the players would have loved three short windows as normal. I really struggle.

‘I can hardly think of a period in club football where you have matches and a turnaround like we have now.

‘We have Saturday-Tuesday and then another Saturday-Tuesday, so only two days twice in between each game. That sounds just too condensed.

‘I watched yesterday a match between Netherlands and Germany and I think after 36 minutes there were already three players injured.’,

Tuchel will field his strongest possible team tonight as he will throughout the next week and a half.

With Real Madrid defender Trent Alexander-Arnold back in the squad for the first time in a year, Tuchel said he is in a straight fight with former Liverpool team-mate Jarell Quansah – now at Bayer Leverkusen – for a start at right-back.

‘He fights with Jarell for the position,’ he said.

‘Jarell played for us in the USA so that’s the competition.

‘Trent is up for it. We have had some very good training sessions and he has very much been part of that.

‘He will get his chance to take back the shirt.’

With so much talk about style of play in the days since Tuchel announced his squad, the German tried to simplify it ahead of tonight’s game. If his players can take their training performances on to the field of play, he believes they can compete with anybody.

‘If you remember my interview after the Norway game at the World Cup, I'm the first advocate to say we need to play better and I don't say it just to be grumpy or make a point,’ Tuchel said.

‘I say it because I see us. I see us train, I see the quality, I see the build-up play in training through the World Cup and I see yesterday,

‘So, yeah, we're working on that translation onto the pitch. I get it, it's training and then it's matches. It takes another step to get there.

‘We need a complete performance and we want to prove a point.

‘I don’t see the point of trying to copy Spain. The copy can’t be better than the original.

‘But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from them.’