Thomas Tuchel will resist making drastic changes to his defence for England’s Nations League game against Czechia on Tuesday, despite his side going six games without a clean sheet. England arrived in Prague for their second match in Group A3 after losing 3-2 to Spain at Wembley last Saturday, a defeat in which Marc Guehi and Nico O’Reilly made errors. Tuchel has stood by both players.
The England head coach said the Spain loss was caused by individual mistakes rather than a wider problem with how his team defended. “I didn’t see a pattern,” he said. “It was individual mistakes. I didn’t see a pattern in defending. I think we defended very well in a block when we were organised, but we had just big individual mistakes. But I could not see any defensive pattern that would concern me.” Tuchel also argued England defended more disciplined, cohesive and organised than in some World Cup matches, describing it as a step in the right direction. He said his side pushed out from its middle block, tried to get into the opponent’s half, and never lost its structure.
Two of Spain’s goals came from Guehi and O’Reilly losing possession in dangerous positions. Tuchel said England needed to improve those moments but repeated that his defensive concerns were limited. “We need to improve these things but when we had the ball we were the biggest danger to ourselves around the box because we just had too many individual mistakes,” he said. “Purely in defending, I have no concerns.” He added that he would not change now because someone made an individual mistake, pointing out that the players have been good for England in their other matches.
Injury doubts over O’Reilly and Ezri Konsa are likely to keep Tuchel’s changes to a minimum at the back. James Trafford will continue in goal. Lewis Hall is in line to replace O’Reilly at left-back, while Trevoh Chalobah will hope to get the nod over Jarrad Branthwaite as Guehi’s partner in central defence if Konsa is out. England cannot experiment too much against Czechia because they want to reach next year’s finals, and Czechia were beaten by Croatia in their opening Group A3 game.
The main selection question is at right-back, where Trent Alexander-Arnold could replace Jarell Quansah and win his first cap since June 2025. Alexander-Arnold, who did not go to the World Cup, was an unused substitute against Spain. Tuchel said: “He had a very good training week and an excellent training in Wembley after the match, where he showed that he absolutely wants to play and wants to be with us. Today was a good training session. Everything is fine. He’s ready to go.”
Tuchel also explained that starting Trafford in England’s first two Nations League games is about testing whether the Leeds goalkeeper can compete at this level. Jordan Pickford, England’s No 1 since 2018, will return for the trip to Croatia on Saturday and the home game against Czechia next Tuesday. “We use the Nations League to see where we are with the other goalkeepers,” Tuchel said. “There was no reason from performances to open up this position for competition.” He added that it was necessary to be aware of “what if” with every player, and that Trafford has the chance to prove he can play in England’s style.