Thomas Tuchel has set out the importance of Aston Villa ace Ollie Watkins to England’s World Cup hopes. Harry Kane remains the first name on the team sheet for the Three Lions, with the Bayern Munich striker said to be in top shape ahead of the tournament.
Tuchel says England will “try to keep Harry fit and play him as much as possible” this summer but hopes they “will have the chance to not need to play him every match 90 or 120 minutes” - and that could open the door for Watkins to play his part.
Watkins and Toney as key options
Reaching the World Cup final will require the team to play eight games on top of their warm-up friendlies against New Zealand and Costa Rica, increasing the importance of recalled strikers Watkins and Ivan Toney. The former has flourished for Villa since being omitted from the national side’s March meet-up, while Tuchel cleared the air with surprise inclusion Toney after being disappointed by the Al-Ahli striker’s output in his only camp last June.
“I think Ollie is more the guy maybe to start for Harry if we think Harry should not start a match,” Tuchel said. “To keep the intensity up, to keep the press going. That is the strength of Ollie that he showed for us and Ivan is kind of a finisher for us, finisher of matches maybe with a special task to take the attention of defenders off Harry and we can play with a second striker. He’s very, very good in the box, very good with set pieces, a good penalty taker, trains on a high level. I’m very happy with him. He just showed that it was right to take him. He has a brilliant attitude, good training sessions through the whole week, so we have some options and Harry is, of course, the main guy in front.”
England's preparation in Florida
The back-to-back European Championship runners-up are among the favourites to win the World Cup and this week began the acclimatisation process for the hot and humid tournament in North America. England will follow four days of training in Florida with a friendly against fellow qualifiers New Zealand in Tampa later on today (Saturday), when Tuchel intends to play different teams in each half to build fitness and connections.
Among those playing 45 minutes on the Raymond James Stadium’s patchwork pitch will be Kane, who scored an incredible 61 goals in all competitions this term. “He’s in top shape and ready to go,” Tuchel said. “I think we don’t have to be worried about him at all, even if it is hot and humid. He just showed me the whole week that he is ready, he’s determined. He also got titles, he was so influential in Bayern Munich’s campaign. He is our key player.”
