Tuchel names Jude Bellingham as a No 9 alternative after England’s Nations League win in Prague

Thomas Tuchel said he sees Jude Bellingham as an option at No 9 for England after their 2-0 Nations League victory over Czechia in Prague on Tuesday. The comment followed a match in which Harry Kane scored late to move to 87 goals in 123 international appearances.

Kane’s late strike continued his run of scoring for England, and Tuchel backed the 33-year-old to last another decade at the highest level and tipped him to reach a century of international goals soon, saying there is no prospect yet of having to consider life without him. At the same time Tuchel acknowledged concerns about England’s depth up front: Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney were overlooked for this camp, Dominic Calvert-Lewin is 29 with four goals in 13 caps, and Liam Delap, 23, is yet to earn a senior call-up. Bellingham led the line after coming on for Kane in the closing stages against Czechia and wore the captain’s armband after coming off the bench.

"You will not get another Harry Kane, first of all," Tuchel said. "We look for different solutions. We finished the game with Jude as a No 9. There will be someone else but it will not be Harry or a copy of Harry. We will find a solution when it comes to it but maybe not me. It might be another 10 years."

"I like him as a [No] 9," Tuchel said. "Then he can contribute to both sides and overloads the sides and doesn’t affect so much of the balance. We found a bit of a new role for him in the last match, as a central [No] 10, so he can go to both sides and it is more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3 to have Harry and Jude closer together and to give them a chance to overload both sides. "We are working on that. Jude in general should always be able to go through the last line and be able to end up in the box. He is a natural goalscorer and has the hunger to be on the scoreboard. He wants to have the decisive action so it makes not a huge difference if he plays as a [No] 9 or a [No] 10."

England moved to second in Nations League Group A3 after seeing off Czechia, who were reduced to 10 men midway through the first half; Anthony Gordon opened the scoring and Kane finished late on. Tuchel praised Kane’s finishing, saying: "The ball falls down and you see Harry taking the shot and that is exactly the player you want it to drop down to. He does it in every single match. The highest level of finishing."

Tuchel, who was the manager responsible for taking Kane to Bayern Munich in 2023, responded to Uli Hoeness’s comment that Kane was the club’s greatest signing by saying: "That is so beautiful as it tells me everyone can see his true value and his personality. It is not easy to change and to come to Bayern Munich when you win, win, win and it is a big club. You are under the spotlight and he won everyone over."

It remains to be seen if Tuchel will persist with Trent Alexander-Arnold after the right-back marked his first international appearance since June 2025 by creating Gordon’s goal. "Trent’s outstanding," Kane said. "The delivery, the passing range, the crossing but also today defensively he was outstanding. He’s a fantastic player. Trent just has to keep his head down, keep working hard. He’s been great in camp so far. He’s showing to the boss that he wants to be here."

England’s next assignment is a trip to Rijeka to face Croatia on Saturday.