Declan Rice has been named England’s vice-captain by Thomas Tuchel, who has played down the significance of Jude Bellingham wearing the armband during the second half of the 1-0 victory against New Zealand.
Although Bellingham captained the side after coming off the bench in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up in Tampa, Tuchel said that was simply because the midfielder was the player on the pitch with the most international appearances.
The head coach was clear that the situation would have been different if Rice, who is a key member of England’s leadership group, had been part of the matchday squad at the Raymond James Stadium. The midfielder, who was one of four Arsenal players given time off by Tuchel after the Champions League final, captained England when Harry Kane was unavailable against Wales last October.
“I would say Declan is my vice-captain,” Tuchel said after being asked if anyone has been appointed to the role. “I was just thinking about it – whether it is an official thing or not. But I think we had this talk when Harry was not in camp with us. Was it against Wales? Did Harry miss a game against Wales? We started with Ollie [Watkins] and I think Declan was captain. That was where I told him.”
England are using their time in Florida to acclimatise to the heat and the New Zealand game was essentially a training exercise. Tuchel played different XIs in each half, with Kane coming off after scoring the winner late in the first half. Bellingham was introduced at half-time but Tuchel smiled and urged reporters not to read too much into the 22-year-old taking the armband in Kane’s absence. “He had just the most caps,” the German said. “You can check it out.”
Tuchel, who refused to reveal whether Bellingham is part of the leadership group, will adopt a different approach to selection when England head to Orlando to face Costa Rica in their final warm-up before opening their tournament against Croatia in Group L on 17 June. He said some players will play for over an hour against Costa Rica but is unsure if he will send out his preferred starting XI for the World Cup.
The big question is whether Tuchel sees Bellingham starting as the No 10 in his best side. Morgan Rogers has credit in the bank after impressing during England’s qualifying campaign. The Aston Villa attacker played the first half against New Zealand. Bellingham caught the eye after coming on but Tuchel stressed that the Real Madrid man is fighting for his place.
“He is,” said the former Chelsea manager. “He’s one of the starters, he knows that, he’s one of the starters but there are 14, 15 potential starters. Then there’s a special group and then there is a leadership group. Then there’s guys who finish matches for us and get the energy right and have more the role of setting the standards and accepting their roles for challenging. And these roles can always change but in my head there are 15, 14 proper starters and Jude is one of them.”
The Arsenal contingent arrived at England’s pre-tournament base in West Palm Beach on Saturday but Tuchel is unsure if Rice, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka will be involved against Costa Rica. “Let’s see how they come back,” he said. “Three training days and let’s see. We have one more match behind closed doors to manage all the minutes. If someone plays 70 minutes against Costa Rica and someone else only plays 20, that is also not enough. There will be players who only had 20 or 30 minutes and will play the next day again.”
One complicating factor against New Zealand was a questionable pitch. “We wanted to be here because of the heat first and foremost, which I thought we dealt with pretty well,” Kane said. “The pitch wasn’t great, so we’re having to deal with that. That’s going to happen in the tournament. We like to play quick, we like to play sharp and that wasn’t always possible on that pitch. It was a bit sticky and dry. It is the first week and the match was another step in our preparation.
“The drinks breaks help. A lot of people talk about the heat but I don’t think it will be as big a factor as people say. Myself and a few of the boys felt fine in the first game. We’ve been training in it and it’s not been too bad. I think it’s easy just to say it’s going to be really tough as it’s different to what we are used to. But we are all athletes, we are professionals and have all played in warm-weather conditions before.”
