Premier League intensity or caution - how will Tuchel's England play?

There's an irony at the heart of the Thomas Tuchel project that perhaps makes him the most intriguing England appointment this century.

Hiring a German supercoach on a short-term contract effectively bins a decade of regeneration at St George's Park and the "England DNA" philosophy that Dan Ashworth launched in 2014 with Gareth Southgate, then the under-21s coach, at his side.

And yet, seemingly by accident, the Football Association's lurch to a win-now mentality - their indulgence in a foreign star with a febrile temperament and cutting-edge tactics - has embraced English football's real culture, its inescapable DNA: the Premier League.

Tuchel's England will be fast & furious - in theory

It's a relationship Tuchel has already promised to lean into, a story he has already begun to tell.

"We will inject a little bit of club football into federation football," he said in his first news conference as England manager last Friday.

"The Premier League is a very physical league, a very direct league. We should be proud enough of the culture and the style of English football and the English league to implement this.

"We have to increase the intensity in our games. I want to have more touches in the opponent's box. I want to have more ball recoveries in the opponent's half."

First and foremost, this is intelligent politics from Tuchel, who presents a clear and disarmingly simple vision: forget the Spain-lite stuff, forget the hesitant Southgate years, England should tap into its greatest asset and USP for inspiration.

There is no doubt Tuchel has the pedigree and the tactical nous to pull it off, in theory at least.

His Chelsea team were certainly meant to be defined in this way: hard pressing, high intensity, and - crucially - possession with purpose.

In his second year at the helm, a common sight in the Stamford Bridge dugout was a furious Tuchel sweeping both hands from side to side, urging the Chelsea players to cut lines, to pass vertically.

Control of the ball is vital - Chelsea averaged 62.2% possession in the Premier League under him, the third most during his stint in England - but he was often frustrated by the rigidity and overly-structured passing that afflicted the Blues.

Instead they found intensity when out of possession. Their PPDA, a measure of pressing intensity, was 9.8 during his time at the club, the second-best score in the Premier League.

Working off the Deschamps blueprint?

But Tuchel is a deep tactical thinker and perhaps too flexible to be anchored to these buzzwords. He is not a 'philosophy' manager wedded to one idea like Ruben Amorim or Ange Postecoglou.

At Dortmund he pressed high and hard, only to drop deeper at Chelsea, where he developed a penchant for double number 10s between the lines. At Bayern Munich, tactical fluency never really took hold, yet Tuchel clearly moved towards fast wingers and quick transitions more than in previous jobs.

Even the formation is open to change. He deployed a back three in 55 of his 63 Premier League games for Chelsea but has rarely returned to it since.

There are no absolutes, leaving open the possibility that, for all the talk of a strong tactical vision, Tuchel - like so many England managers before him - will naturally retreat into something altogether more conservative.

His disappointing 14-month spell at Bayern, who finished third in his only full season in charge, was defined by a caution and pragmatism that he, reportedly resisting internal calls to play attacking football, felt forced upon him by a weak defence.

England's paucity of high-quality defenders, certainly compared to their riches in attack, may ultimately inspire similar caution, especially in an environment that naturally breeds restrictive thinking.

The Didier Deschamps blueprint for international knockout football - a cagey defensive mid-block and low-volume, safety-first attacks - remains in-vogue, and despite his lofty aims, Tuchel could be drawn in, not least because he's done it once before - and it sparked his greatest achievement to date.

Champions League win shows knockout know-how

Tuchel built his Champions League-winning Chelsea side on the foundation of a deep-lying defence and quick counter-attacks, choosing the defensive approach as he muddled through following a mid-season appointment in January 2021.

Adventurous they were not, but Chelsea kept 18 clean sheets in his first 24 matches in charge and conceded just two goals in seven Champions League knockout games, culminating in a couple of backs-to-the-walls wins when it mattered most.

Chelsea beat Real Madrid 2-0 in the semi-final second leg with just 32.7% possession, and then squeezed past Manchester City in a nervy final in Porto with only 39.6% of the ball.

Tuchel's England will also need to be built quickly for knockout football, while minimal time on the training field necessitates simpler instructions at international level - and defensive resilience is quicker to coach than attacking dynamism.

Add in the pressure cooker of those final-stage matches and the lopsided talent in the England squad, and it becomes harder to believe Tuchel can infuse international management with Premier League intensity.

But that doesn't mean he won't turn the dial on Southgate.

Chelsea battled to victory in those tough Champions League games. They snapped into midfield challenges and passed bravely through the lines, far more than the static and retreating England midfields that came to define Southgate's biggest matches.

Flexible & intelligent players will be prioritised

Suffice to say there are too many unknowns to accurately predict Tuchel's preferred playing style, personnel, or even formation before we see England in action this weekend.

But we can at least highlight the type of player he will grow fond of.

Tuchel's favourites at Chelsea were Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, Jorginho and N'Golo Kante - intelligent, shape-shifting footballers able to follow detailed tactical instructions and willing to break lines even when pressured.

Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham obviously fall into this category with England, although Tuchel may take a shine to Curtis Jones; an all-action, press-evading footballer with the smarts to link the middle together.

In the forward line the priority will be hard-working pressers, as well as players comfortable cutting inside to receive possession in that fertile central attacking midfield space, hence Eberechi Eze and Morgan Rogers being picked ahead of Jack Grealish and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

But it's defence where we will learn Tuchel's true intentions.

His options here are more limited, as represented most acutely by Jordan Pickford: hardly the ball-playing sweeper-keeper Tuchel would like, but the only realistic option.

And where there are defensive decisions to be made, contradictions abound.

Kyle Walker's inclusion attests to the pull of conservatism, but Myles Lewis-Skelly does the opposite. Jordan Henderson over Adam Wharton is an eye-catchingly anti-progressive decision, as is the sturdy Dan Burn over Jarrad Branthwaite.

Each choice hints at competing voices on Tuchel's shoulders. Those whispers will be loudest when Trent Alexander-Arnold, unavailable for selection this time, comes back into the fold. What happens to him will prove instructive.

A Premier League-inspired Tuchel - of intense, direct, and physical football - will make Trent the beating heart.

The Champions League-winning Tuchel - of necessity, caution and restrictive gameplans - will follow in Southgate's footsteps and leave the Liverpool right-back on the bench.

Tuchel's appointment is something truly new, an acceptance that England's DNA is the Premier League, for better and for worse.

But Premier League management affords what international coaching does not - time to teach, to embed tactics and to build a squad profile in the manager's image. Without that, the ever-flexible Tuchel may temper his ambition.