The ex-England international discusses Thomas Tuchel's squad selection and Jude Bellingham's role in the 2026 World Cup, and his own experience of the 2002 tournament.
Former England international Danny Mills believes Thomas Tuchel is still unsure about Jude Bellingham’s role in the team despite his well-known qualities and talent.
England are currently 7/1 in World Cup betting odds to win the tournament, but people have questioned Tuchel’s squad selection after leaving out notable players such as Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Harry Maguire.
In our exclusive interview, Mills also discusses his experience of the 2002 World Cup and whether their most recent title win could mean the start of an Arsenal dominant era in the Premier League.
What did you make of England’s 1-0 win over New Zealand?
It was uninspiring, I would say, but also, it’s quite difficult at this stage of the season, pre-tournament, where players are coming off the back of long, difficult seasons. Some have had two or three weeks’ break already, some have had a couple of days’ break. You’re bringing a squad together that’s a little bit disjointed, if you like.
They haven’t had too much time together. Obviously, not too many training sessions. The heat plays a factor. I think he was always going to change the team dramatically throughout the game, which is always very disruptive.
I think that first friendly is sometimes just a needs-must. There’s not an awful lot you can do about that sometimes. We all want to see sparkling performances. It’s very rare that that happens.
Look at what happened to France. Similar result, similar performance, a little bit disjointed at the time. I wouldn’t put too much worry into that game. If it continues, that’s a different story.
What are your thoughts on Thomas Tuchel’s 26-man squad?
I was a little bit surprised by some of the omissions. I get it, a lot of people have always talked about “good tourists” and, by that, I listened to Joe Cole talking the other day, who saw both sides of that.
Even my good friend Gareth Southgate and my roommate Nigel Martyn have been involved in that, where realistically, when it comes down to the bones of it, 15 or 16 players are going to start in the tournament.
Not too many more than that, unless you’ve qualified in the first two games and everyone gets a run-out, perhaps. But if there’s something on it, you’re going to play your strongest team, which is generally 15 or 16 players.
So, you then need players that are happy to be second choice, are comfortable with that, are supportive of those that are starting, keep the standards very high in training, are not disruptive, and are happy to be the opposition in training sessions.
It’s a very difficult balance and it takes a certain type of character, which is why the likes of Jordan Henderson are involved in this, because they set the tone, they set the standards on the training ground, and they demand certain things of other players, which is very, very important.
So, I get it from that side of it, and I think we’ve always gone in the past saying, “We just need to pick our best players.” We’ve seen time and time again that picking the best players does not make you a great team. That’s a fact.
Go to PSG with Neymar, Mbappe and Messi. That did not make the greatest team because you need to have that chemistry. Whereas you look at some of Jose Mourinho’s teams, where sometimes there are unknown names in there, or players that were perhaps a little bit left field, but it worked. It’s about putting that jigsaw puzzle together.
I can see where Thomas Tuchel has gone on parts of that, but then I’m equally confused by some of the players that he’s left out. The Trent one goes back to the first instance. I don’t know Trent personally. Would Trent be happy being a substitute and being a squad member? I don’t know, is the answer. Is he incredibly talented? Without a shadow of a doubt.
That’s the only reason I can think that Thomas Tuchel may have left him out of the squad because, if he’s not going to be first choice, what is he like as a backup? I don’t know. Thomas Tuchel knows a lot more than me. But leaving Harry Maguire out, I do not get in the slightest. I think he’s experienced. I think he’s had a very good season. He’s reliable. Would he be disruptive if not in the team? Absolutely not.
Look what he’s been through at Manchester United. Is he a threat in both boxes? Yes. People talk about, “Oh, we need them for penalties.” You’ve got to get to penalties first. You might need to score a goal. You might need to keep a clean sheet to get to penalties in those situations.
Then you look at the number 10 issue with Phil Foden. I can understand it. Phil’s not had a wonderful season. He certainly hasn’t been at his sparkling best, if you like. Then he leaves out Cole Palmer. People say, “Well, Cole Palmer’s not 100% fit.” Well, nor was Wayne Rooney, nor was Michael Owen, nor was David Beckham, and they all went to tournaments. Nor was Ronaldo when he went to tournaments for Brazil.
But you took them because they can produce moments of magic. Cole Palmer, for me, is in that pedigree. If you need somebody to come up with something in the last 20 minutes of a game, he can pick a pass, he can score a goal. Again, all this talk that he can take a penalty, well, you’ve got to get to penalties first and foremost. Why would you just assume the game is going to go to penalties?
Look at PSG in the Champions League final. Those weren’t their main penalty takers, but they all did pretty well and they won, not a problem. So, the omission of Cole Palmer I do find a little bit confusing when you’ve got a squad of 26. I think defensively also we’re quite light, especially in the full-back area, which would be a concern. Thomas Tuchel is either going to be a hero, or he’s going to fall on his sword. Simple as that.
Do you think Jude Bellingham starts over Morgan Rogers for the first World Cup game?
Again, the first, second and third games… England will qualify. It’s almost harder not to qualify out of the groups with the new format than it is to qualify. You’ve got to win one game. If you can’t win one game, you deserve to be on the plane back home immediately and you all need to be fined.
Jude Bellingham is clearly an incredible talent, but Thomas Tuchel still seems a little bit unsure. Is that about what he does for the team? Where he fits into the position? Is it about his attitude?
There’s clearly something underlying that doesn’t quite fit within that. Again, it’s been brought up. He’s had his issues in the past. Undoubtedly, he’s a fantastic player. I think it’s a difficult one. I think if it goes well for Jude Bellingham, then it’s not a problem and he’s happy and he’s in the team.
What happens if it doesn’t go so well, or you have to leave him out? I think we’ve seen perhaps that’s when Thomas Tuchel is a little bit wary of the reaction to that, that it could become a problem.
That said, those first games are kind of irrelevant. It’s the knockout stages that are going to be important for England. He’s got some big decisions.
Just on the squad selection, we talk about leaving players out. Sometimes it’s not always about scoring goals. Sometimes it’s about ball retention. I do look at England and think we’re going to play against teams that sit in a low block. They’ll probably play on the counter-attack and try to hit teams on the break.
Again, this is where the Cole Palmers of this world can get hold of the ball and keep the ball for you. They don’t give the ball away. They run up the pitch, they’re always available, pass and move. Sometimes when you’ve got to see out games, or when the opposition are pushing in the last 20 minutes, the best form of defence isn’t attack.
The best form of defence is keeping the ball because, if you’ve got it, they haven’t. And if they haven’t got it, they can’t score. It’s that simple. So again, there would maybe be a little bit of a worry about how much pressure England come under in the last 20 minutes of important games.
In 2002, if you had beaten Brazil, could England have gone on to win the World Cup that year?
Oh, absolutely. That’s possibly one of the best Brazil sides ever. You can argue about the Brazil side of 1970 and all those sorts of players with Pele and Jairzinho, and then after that Zico and everybody else. Brazil have always been magnificent.
But that World Cup side was sensational. Without doubt, it was one of the best Brazil sides ever. And we had an absolute firm belief that if we could win that game, then there was no reason on earth why we couldn’t go on.
We’d have faced either Turkey in the semi-final and they were very beatable. Then it obviously would have been Germany in the final. Again, a team that we’d beaten in qualifying in 2001 in Munich. It was an unbelievable game.
So, if we’d got past Brazil, of course it would still have been difficult. But there would have been massive belief. If you’d already beaten Argentina and then beat the two best teams in the tournament, why wouldn’t you believe you could go on and win the World Cup?
Sadly, as history tells us, we didn’t. We went home early.
When Ronaldinho got sent off for fouling you in that game, did he say anything to you as he walked off?
Again, it’s one of those. Over time it’s probably changed. You look back now and, if it happened today, it’s probably a red card. It’s high, it’s nowhere near the ball, it’s straight down the front of the shin and onto the ankle. In the modern game it’s red. Back then it was probably a yellow. The referee decided to send him off but after that, we struggled.
This goes back to what I was just talking about with England. Brazil kept the ball an awful lot better than us. We struggled to get the ball off 10 men because technically they were better than us. They had much better ball retention. They were able to keep hold of the ball.
We couldn’t get it off them and we struggled to get into their half in the last half an hour of the game. I think we had one shot towards goal in that period. It just goes to show the benefit of technical players who can keep hold of a football and how important that is in those situations.
People ask if there are any regrets from that game.
I guess the only real regret is that maybe in the last 10 or 15 minutes we didn’t go old-school England and just launch the ball into the box and make it as uncomfortable as possible for Brazil in those moments. Maybe it’s because we couldn’t get the ball and we couldn’t get it on our feet.
But that’s probably the only thing you look back on.
What was the team chemistry like during that trip?
I never found this a problem. I’ve never really had a major problem with it. There was always, when I was involved with England, a very strong Manchester United connection. They were a very, very tight unit. They were the best team in the Premier League. They were winning everything at the time and there were a lot of them in the squad.
They were powerful within the group. But I’ve always said there was a section of Liverpool players that hung out together, Manchester United players that hung out together, Chelsea players that hung out together, Leeds players that hung out together.
Then into that fold, Gareth Southgate would come because he knew Nigel Martyn from Crystal Palace, and Gareth was playing for Middlesbrough at the time. It was around where a lot of us lived in Leeds and we knew each other outside football as well. It was never a problem for me. Never found it an issue.
And I say this now: if you go on a work trip with four people that you work with every single day, and you go away with other people from the company, you sit with the people you know best.
You sit with the people you’re comfortable with. I roomed with Nigel Martyn. Why on earth would I suddenly ignore him and go and talk to somebody else when he’s my best friend at the time? It doesn’t happen. It doesn’t mean I disliked anybody else. We played golf with Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt. We still mixed with everybody. We did all sorts together.
It’s just human nature. You sit with whom you’re comfortable with. Then you have habits. You’d always find that in the dining room especially. Wherever you sat on the first meal was your seat for the tournament, no matter what.
That was it. We all do it. We all have our favourite little seats. We all have our routines. If, for instance, myself and Nigel Martyn sat down and Nigel sat next to me, we’d have a chat over dinner about life, things going on back home, family and everything else.
I wouldn’t just randomly go and sit with other people to talk about that when they had no idea what I was talking about. They’d have a slight interest, but that’s about it. So yeah, I never found this clique thing to be as much of a problem as some people have made out.
What was the experience like in Japan and Korea for the 2002 World Cup?
I guess the moment you get called into a squad, you know, I wasn’t sure I was going to make the squad. Then Gary got injured and I thought, “Now I’ve got a great chance of making the squad,” which was obviously magnificent for me.
After that, I was given the number two squad number. I played well against South Korea, which was only the second game I’d ever started for England. I’d never started a competitive game to that point. So that gave me a little bit more hope.
I played about 70 minutes against South Korea and did quite well. Then you’re going into the first game of the tournament against Sweden. Possibly the proudest moment of my football career—going to represent your country at a World Cup. Only around 250 people had ever done that at the time. It’s not many.
You’re in a very exclusive group. It’s the sort of thing you grow up dreaming about. Not just to play for your country, but to play at a World Cup. It is the absolute pinnacle. I think now it’s maybe 280 or 300 Englishmen who have ever played at a World Cup.
It’s still not many when football has been around for hundreds of years. It was a huge moment, an incredibly proud moment to be part of. You just want to give your all, do your best and not let anybody down.
Could this be the start of an Arsenal dominance in the Premier League?
Arsenal look a lot more stable. It looks like their recruitment has been better than Liverpool’s over the last couple of years. Mikel Arteta has been building for some time.
Arne Slot came in and did fantastically in his first season, and Liverpool had a lot of issues to deal with.
I don’t think that can be underplayed in any way, shape or form. Arsenal look like the most stable club in the Premier League at the moment. With Manchester City, we don’t know how good they’re going to be next season with a new manager and Pep leaving.
We saw what happened at Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson left. I don’t expect that to happen to Manchester City, but when Arsène Wenger left Arsenal, it was a big deal. It’s been difficult for them to get back to where they were.
With Chelsea, who knows what they’re going to be? There’s a lot of potential, but they’ve underwhelmed in the last couple of seasons. Liverpool have a relatively new manager. There are so many variables.
Manchester United could be there or thereabouts, but are they quite up there to challenge? I’m not convinced of that. So, it looks like Arsenal, if they get their mentality right and if they get their recruitment right, are probably favourites now to go on and win the Premier League again. It’s very, very difficult to win it back-to-back.
