James backs Tuchel, says Marca should not build around Bellingham
marca is getting a squad-first message from one of England’s former goalkeepers. David James has backed Thomas Tuchel’s approach to Jude Bellingham, saying the 22-year-old should not be treated as the focal point every game.
James said England should not build around Bellingham at the top level. He framed the issue around balance, not talent, arguing that a World Cup side cannot lean on one player and expect the rest of the structure to hold.
James backs Tuchel’s balance
James told GOAL that England are right to treat Bellingham in the same manner as Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne. His view lines up with Tuchel’s apparent preference for a squad-based model in 2026, where the manager does not always build around the team’s most gifted player.
“No, not at the top. No, no, no. I think everything that Thomas has said, especially about this squad, we can only focus on the World Cup with regards to this at the moment, suggests that there is a balance to this team, there isn't a focal player.”
That is the crux of James’s argument: Bellingham belongs in England’s plans for the World Cup finals in North America, but a place in the plan is not the same thing as being the permanent center of it. With fierce competition in the No.10 role, the Real Madrid midfielder has work to do before anyone can call him an automatic starter.
No.10 battle in 2026
James drew the line between quality and dependence. “I think the danger with building around a focal player is that if there are any problems with that player then everything starts to go wrong. Jude is an amazing player, when he's on top of his game then there's pretty much no better player around than Jude Bellingham, but you need everybody to share the load to win a World Cup and I think that what Thomas is looking to do is utilise what he's got in his squad, rather than just focus on one player and get everyone to work around that.”
He added that Bellingham will still have games where he takes control. “There will be times where Jude will take control, I'm sure, that's just the quality of the player. But I think the actual set-up is squad-based to maximise the potential for success.”
The practical implication for England is straightforward: Bellingham can be a match-winner without being asked to carry the full structure on every outing. That leaves Tuchel with room to rotate roles inside the No.10 discussion and forces the rest of the attack to stay involved rather than waiting for one midfielder to solve every problem.
Hoddle, Gascoigne, Messi
James anchored his case in England’s past. He pointed to the 1980s, when England failed to make the most of Hoddle, and to the 1998 World Cup, when Gascoigne’s talent was ignored. He also said he had played in England squads with Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes, yet success still did not follow.
“Let me just think about success. First of all, we had no success with those players and their ultimate success, i.e. winning trophies.”
He widened the comparison to France, Spain and Argentina, naming Zinedine Zidane, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi as players who were head and shoulders above their peers in their eras. Even there, he argued, modern international football no longer rewards building everything around one elite name.
“As highly talented as Jude is, and we've already seen in the World Cup the quality of player that they're coming up against, they're at such a high level now, I think the idea of depending on one person to try and give you success now just doesn't work.”
That leaves England’s World Cup plan with a clear order: use Bellingham heavily when the game demands it, but keep the rest of the squad active enough that the team is not exposed if he is marked out or off form. For Tuchel, the cleaner read is the harder one — England’s best midfielder should be central, but not indispensable in every phase.
