CORNERFLICK
England named five players based outside the Premier League for the first time in a senior competitive match, as Thomas Tuchel’s side beat Czech Republic away and kept a clean sheet.
A different England XI
Harry Kane, Tino Calafiori, Jude Bellingham, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Anthony Gordon all featured for England, with the latter two involved in the goals. Gordon scored the opener from an Alexander-Arnold assist, before Kane added the second.
Tuchel, the German coach in charge of England, has leaned more heavily on players abroad than previous squads. The source says 31% of the team against Czech Republic came from outside the Premier League, up from 19% in Tuchel’s World Cup 2026 squad list.
Bigger shift after Qatar
The same source says England had only one non-Premier League player at the 2022 World Cup, Jude Bellingham. It also notes that the number rose by 16 percentage points by the time of the latest World Cup, with clubs such as Manchester City and Arsenal supplying most of the Premier League-based players in that tournament.