England have confirmed their starting 11 for their final fixture of 2025 and manager Thomas Tuchel has made a number of changes from the team that comfortably dispensed of Serbia 2-0 on Thursday night.
The Three Lions have already confirmed their place at next summer’s World Cup having won all seven of their games in Group K without conceding a single goal.
England’s Confirmed Starting 11 vs Albania
Albania’s place as group runners-up is already guaranteed, making Sunday’s meeting a glorified friendly.
That is perhaps why England boss Tuchel has made several changes, with goalkeeper Dean Henderson, defenders Jarrell Quansah and Dan Burn, midfielders Jude Bellingham and Adam Wharton, and attackers Ebereche Eze and Jarrod Bowen all coming into the team.
The confirmed England 11 to face Albania is as follows:
Henderson; Quansah, Stones, Burn, O’Reilly; Wharton, Rice; Bowen, Bellingham, Eze; Kane (c)
Meanwhile, Albania’s lineup is as follows:
Strakosha; Hysaj, Ismajli, Djimsiti, Aliji; Laci, Asllani, Ramadani; Bajrami, Uzuni, Hoxha
Tuchel Sticks to his Word over Phil Foden
Phil Foden was one of the winners from England’s last outing, when he came off the bench and caused problems for Serbia playing in a false nine role, to the extent that he provided the assist for Eze to seal a relatively routine 2-0 win.
With the Manchester City maestro purring and nothing on the line in tonight’s game, the Three Lions boss may have been tempted to see whether he could find a way to make Foden, Bellingham and Kane fit together – in the eyes of many, England’s three most talented players.
But Tuchel has already confirmed publicly that all three will never get into the same England starting 11 under his watch, unless he makes a significant change in formation. He seems to think they are in some way incompatible, perhaps because they all enjoy occupying the same spaces on the pitch.
Tuchel said: “At the moment, if we keep the structure, they cannot play. They can but not in the structure, not for the balance that we developed and not for the structure that comes also with wingers who are like specialists in their positions. We play at the moment with a six, eight, a 10 and a nine.”
On the one hand, Tuchel will have a difficult decision to make regarding which player gets left out each game — and in this instance, that player is Foden. On the other, there’s something to be said for picking the best team and not the best individuals, something that has undoubtedly hindered England in the past.
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