The likes of Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford were called up by the former Bayern Munich boss whilst the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White and Callum Hudson-Odoi missed out despite their excellent form at Nottingham Forest. Writing for CaughtOffside, Collymore took aim at Tuchel and suggested that he had a bias towards players from so-called bigger teams.
“I have no problems with Dan Burn being called up to the England squad. His form for Newcastle has been very good for a while, and it is a great story for him, winning the Carabao Cup on Sunday before getting his first call-up. Myles Lewis-Skelly is another that I have no problems with – if he is going to be the future for Arsenal and England. However, I think that if he was someone who played for a team in the lower half of the Premier League, and he had the same sample size of matches as he has had, I’m not so sure that he would not be in the squad.
“We need to start rewarding players that play well regardless of the team that they play for in the Premier League, and that is a massive argument with the Nottingham Forest boys. For me, Morgan Gibbs-White was undoubtedly only brought into the England squad as a late call-up because of the media attention that his omission received. I like to think that I have a voice as much as any of the other big voices when it comes to England and English football, and I am certainly someone that reacted when I saw that there were no Forest players included in the squad. Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson and Callum Hudson-Odoi all deserved to be called up, they have all played every week for a team that are third in the Premier League.”
He then addressed the controversy that Tuchel did not attend many games before picking his side which may explain some of his more talked about selections such as Henderson who many think is far past his best.
“I think questions have to be asked about who is watching matches. There was already a story that Tuchel has not come over to watch many games, and now the call-ups will start to create a narrative that he does not watch players and that his scouting system is not working as it should be.”