Jude Bellingham said England got some things “a little bit wrong off the pitch” at UEFA Euro 2024 and did not connect as well as they could have. England still reached the final in Germany, but the bigger issue was how the group functioned away from the pitch.
Bellingham on England’s bond
“At the Euros, we got some things a little bit wrong off the pitch,” Bellingham said on the FA’s Lions’ Den programme last week. He added: “I don’t feel like the group connected as well as it could have, for a number of reasons.”
That is the clearest public read on a problem that had circulated privately around England’s Euro 2024 camp. The issue was not whether the team could compete; it was whether the players were tight enough in the spaces between matches to handle the pressure of a long tournament run.
Tuchel’s leadership reset
Thomas Tuchel took over as England head coach early last year and has spent his time in charge rebuilding a sense of brotherhood among the players. One of his first acts last March was to recall Jordan Henderson, the Brentford midfielder, after he had been left out of the Euro 2024 squad.
Harry Kane had already pointed to the same fault line during Tuchel’s first international camp in March 2025, saying England were “a little bit light on leadership” during Gareth Southgate’s final tournament. He later said he and Henderson “complement each other very well in the way we lead,” with Kane leading by example and Henderson more naturally vocal on and off the pitch.
Southgate’s Euro 2024 call
Southgate did not include Henderson or Harry Maguire in the England squad for Euro 2024, and that decision now sits at the center of the leadership discussion. England reached the final anyway, but Bellingham and Kane have both suggested the squad still lacked enough off-field structure to match its on-field talent.
Tuchel has tied the next campaign in North America to those same standards. He said it will stand or fall on the strength of England’s leadership and off-field connections, which leaves the main test simple: whether the rebuild around Henderson, Kane and the rest of the group produces a dressing room that connects as well as the talent on the pitch.
