Thomas Tuchel will name his first England World Cup starting XI on Wednesday evening when the Three Lions face Croatia in Group B, and the BBC Sport panel cannot agree on a single name beyond Jude Bellingham. Across five pundit selections published on the corporation’s website, only Bellingham, Declan Rice and Harry Kane appear on every team sheet, leaving eight shirts up for grabs and a fierce debate over whether Tuchel’s first competitive XI should lean on the Euro 2024 spine or the form players who have forced their way into Group B contention.
Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton, Rachel Brown-Finnis, Stephen Warnock and Danny Murphy all submitted line-ups, and the most divisive picks fall in the wide areas and at right-back. Bukayo Saka, who has scored four goals in qualifying, features in four of the five sides. Marcus Rashford, on the back of a 19-goal Premier League season with Aston Villa, makes three. Cole Palmer, despite a stop-start Chelsea campaign, is named by Shearer and Murphy. Phil Foden, the most expensive squad member to omit, is in only two.
The spine everyone agrees on
Jordan Pickford starts in goal for all five pundits, a reflection of his record of 38 clean sheets in 78 England appearances and Tuchel’s repeated public backing since taking the job in January. Rice is universally selected at the base of midfield, with Bellingham given licence to roam ahead of him. Kane, England’s all-time top scorer on 70 international goals, is the unanimous choice through the middle even after a quieter season at Bayern Munich, where he managed 24 Bundesliga goals but went seven games without a strike in March and April.
The back four is where consensus begins to fracture. John Stones and Marc Guehi are named in central defence by four of the five, with only Shearer preferring Levi Colwill alongside Stones. Luke Shaw, fit for the first tournament cycle in two years, gets the nod at left-back from every pundit. Right-back is the genuine puzzle: Kyle Walker, 35 and now at Burnley, is picked by Sutton and Brown-Finnis on experience grounds, while Murphy and Warnock back Trent Alexander-Arnold for his passing range. Shearer, in the most eye-catching call, hands the shirt to 22-year-old Newcastle academy graduate Tino Livramento.
Croatia, history and the Tuchel question
England have not beaten Croatia at a World Cup since 1966, a run that includes the 2-1 semi-final defeat in Moscow in 2018 when Mario Mandzukic broke English hearts in extra time. Zlatko Dalic’s side, although ageing, still contains Luka Modric, who at 40 will become the oldest outfield player to start a World Cup match if he features. Croatia have lost only one of their last 11 competitive fixtures against European opposition, and beat France in March’s Nations League play-off.
Tuchel, the first foreign manager to lead England at a World Cup, has won eight of his ten games in charge but is still without a competitive victory against a top-15 ranked nation. His pre-tournament friendlies against Senegal and Andorra offered limited information, and the German has hinted at a 4-2-3-1 with Bellingham at number ten, the system Brown-Finnis and Murphy have both replicated. Sutton’s bolder 4-3-3 pushes Bellingham wider and brings Morgan Rogers into central midfield, a structural shift designed to handle Modric’s late runs.
The selections that will define the tournament
Three calls will shape Tuchel’s evening. The first is whether to start Saka, who picked up a minor hamstring complaint in training on Monday but trained fully on Tuesday. The second is the Alexander-Arnold question: a passer of his quality unlocks low blocks, but Croatia’s Andrej Kramaric will target the space behind him. The third, and most political, is Foden. Dropping a player of his calibre for the opening match would send an unmistakable message about earned places, but it risks alienating one of the few England players capable of producing a single moment of brilliance against a deep-lying side.
England open as 8/13 favourites with most bookmakers, with Croatia at 9/2 and the draw at 12/5. Win on Wednesday and the Three Lions are likely to top Group B, setting up a last-16 tie against the runner-up in Group A. Lose, and the recriminations begin before Tuchel has even finished his first tournament team talk. The pundits have made their picks. In Atlanta on Wednesday night, only one XI will matter.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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