England squad announced, which Spurs players did and did not make it? | OneFootball

On Friday morning, Thomas Tuchel announced his inaugural England squad for the beginning of the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia, both of which are home games at Wembley Stadium. Let's go through the options he had from the Lilywhites and see which players made his squad, and the ones who will feel hard done-by by the 51-year-old German.

Surprisingly, the only Tottenham Hotspurs player that Tuchel has picked for this squad is 27-year-old forward Dominic Solanke. The striker made his debut for the Three Lions in November of 2017 at just 20, in a 0-0 draw against record world champions Brazil, but he has only gone on to make a further two appearances in an England shirt. Solanke has just came back from an injury quite recently, so this could be a slight concern for Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou, but his form over a sustained period of time in not only a Tottenham shirt but a Bournemouth one as well, along with the recent injury to Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins - I think it's fair to say the 27-year-old deserves his spot in Tuchel's team.

Now let's take a look at some of the names who will definitely be feeling unlucky to be left out, and there is no better place to start than full-back Djed Spence. The 24-year-old has worked so hard to get into the starting eleven of Postecoglou's side, starting nine of his last ten Premier League games for the side from N17. After fairly unsuccessful loan spells abroad at Stade Rennais in France, and Genoa in Italy, Spence has massively improved his game this season, proving to be a very solid option as a left or right-back, providing good cover for Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro. Spence has scored once and created a further goal in the league for Spurs, along with completing just over one and a half dribbles per game, and succeeding in 60% of them. He can also do the defensive part of the game and get stuck in, averaging two tackles a game. When you look at some of the full-backs that have been chosen, Spence would have every right to be gutted with Tuchel's decision.

Another player who will definitely be feeling devastated to be left out is James Maddison. It was reported that Tuchel has said he is a fan of the 28-year-old quite a while ago, however he has not made his first squad. Maddison has nine goals and five assists in the Premier League, and would definitely have added some extra creativity to the system. Again, when you look at some of his colleagues that have been picked ahead of him, the likes of Crystal Palace midfielder Eberechi Eze, Curtis Jones of Liverpool and even Marcus Rashford, who has done well at Aston Villa so far, but over a very short amount of time, it is clear to see why Mddison will be left feeling frustrated.

You can also make a small argument for youngster Archie Gray to have been selected, impressing in a number of different positions this campaign in very difficult circumstances. You can make every case for him to be ahead of the likes of Dan Burn and Jarell Quansah in the defence, and even ahead of veteran Jordan Henderson in the midfield, which came as a surprise to all of us that he had been chosen by the German. Gray, however was selected for the under twenty-one's, which is still probably best for his development right now, and at least he will be going out to play some sort of international football for this upcoming period.