What Jordan Henderson’s surprise England recall tells us about Thomas Tuchel's concerns | OneFootball

Midfielder’s selection is quietly damning in more ways than one

When Jordan Henderson turned up at the final of Euro 2024, having driven from Amsterdam to Berlin in a hired van, you wondered whether England might have done with him sooner.

Once the group stage began, however, it became obvious that too much had changed too soon.

Though his side fought their way to the final, Southgate admitted he sensed fear among his novices at the weight of expectation, as well as their surprise at the scale of criticism as England advanced without playing well.

Henderson has recalled by Tuchel in his first England squad for World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia

The FA via Getty Images

Among the absent, older heads, as Southgate cycled through midfield options, Henderson was missed on and off the pitch.

Whether he, even then a declining force after his move to Saudi Arabia, could have replicated his England best seems unlikely.

Would his experience have helped calm an anxious camp? Probably. Would he have made any difference to the final outcome against Spain? Probably not. Would that trade-off have been worth it? Perhaps. Adam Wharton, picked in the same position, did not get onto the pitch.

This week, Henderson finds himself a shock returnee as part of Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad and the launch phase of a plan to win the World Cup.

You can understand why the new boss wants Henderson around as he lays the foundations of his regime.

Yet Tuchel, with his win-now brief, can surely not be indulging any player who he does not see as a potential part of his World Cup squad in 15 months’s time, and so Henderson’s inclusion is subtly damning of the lot he feels he has inherited.

First, it does not say much for his immediate faith in the squad’s emerging leadership.

Tuchel has described Henderson as a ‘serial winner’

Getty Images

Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham are experienced internationals and have been touted as future England captains, but Henderson has been brought in to command this group alongside Harry Kane, who has always been a more demonstrative than verbal leader.

It tells you, too, that despite the emergences of Kobbie Mainoo (who is injured), Angel Gomes and Wharton, Tuchel still considers the problem position at the base of England’s midfield unfilled.

Could Henderson be the answer there, in a No6 role he plays for Ajax but last did so for England at the 2018 World Cup? He will be 36 by the time the World Cup starts and if there were questions over his form and fitness last summer then they are unlikely to have eased by the one after this.

Sure, Henderson will by then retain the same qualities Southgate could have used in Germany. But it is one thing finding room for a good tourist when circumstances dictate, and quite another to be punching his ticket a year-and-a-half out.

Speaking last week, Tuchel made comparisons between Henderson and Dan Burn, the Newcastle defender called up for the first time this week and already hailed for his influence on team-mates off the pitch.

Burn, though, has come to fight for a place. “I’ve been playing well for a long time,” the 32-year-old said. “I’m not just coming in to be a cheerleader.”

England might have been better for Henderson’s presence last summer, even if only as one of those.

Expecting he might be something more by the next World Cup, though, is surely a step too far.