Chelsea legend John Terry believes Thomas Tuchel’s strong personality and decisions are what set him apart from former England manager Gareth Southgate.
Tuchel is currently in between friendly games ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will be his first tournament as an international manager.
The German has built a reputation for himself as a specialist in knockout football, largely stemming from Chelsea’s 2021 Champions League victory.
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John Terry prefers Thomas Tuchel to Gareth Southgate because of his ability to make tough decisions
Tuchel has sparked plenty of debate in the English media already with some of his squad selections for the tournament. Leaving out Cole Palmer was a huge decision many didn’t see coming.
In truth though, the Blues man was drastically out of form, and looks as if he needed his first summer off since 2022 anyway.
A number of Chelsea legends have been giving their verdict on Tuchel at the helm, with Frank Lampard a big fan of the man who took over from him at Stamford Bridge.
John Terry has stated on his TikTok that he believes the German could actually be better than Gareth Southgate due to his ability to make tough decisions in key moment.
He said: “To be honest, I’ve always been a big fan of Tuchel, and like I said when he’s had success at Chelsea, I’ve seen it first hand just how good he is with the players, and I think the most important thing, and we’ve seen this with the decisions he’s made with the group he’s sending over to the World Cup.
“He will make the big decisions, and I think that’s probably one criticism of Gareth Southgate over his tenure. That he didn’t probably do what a lot of us would’ve done in those big moments in those big games and taken big players off.
“So, if Harry Kane needs to come off, I think Tuchel’s big enough to take Harry Kane off if he’s not playing well, and I’m not sure Southgate did that. So from that side of things, I really like him.”
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Tuchel ready to build around Reece James
Ever since Tuchel took over as England manager, it has been clear that he is prepared to build his backline around James.
Even when the Chelsea captain was having his fitness managed by his club, Tuchel was insistent on using James whenever he was available.
The right-back played 45 minutes in the first warmup game against New Zealand, and looks set to start against Croatia in the first game of the tournament.
It looks as if his international manager has determined he should feature as a regular right-back, rather than the central midfield role he played in a lot during the 2025/26 season.
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