England vs Albania LIVE: Thomas Tuchel takes charge of first game and Marcus Rashford could start

Having been named Gareth Southgate’s permanent successor in October and started the role on New Year’s Day, Tuchel is at long last taking charge of his first England game.

Friday’s match against Albania is the first stop on the road to next summer’s World Cup in North America and a sell-out crowd is heading to Wembley for the start of this new era.

England’s previous 10 permanent managers have opened their reigns with victories, with Sir Bobby Robson the last to fail to do so.

Only Sir Alf Ramsey, whose World Cup heroics Tuchel is looking to replicate, lost his first match.

In the days after Fifa president Gianni Infantino returned from Donald Trump’s inauguration, sources who met with him couldn’t help but notice something. They could have sworn Infantino was starting to talk like Trump, as he constantly went on about “the biggest deals”.

This might well have been a trick of the mind but parallels have been drawn with how some wannabe tech moguls start behaving like Elon Musk after two days visiting Tesla.

It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch given how Infantino nodded along and said yes as Trump absurdly spoke of how an unprecedented trade war between World Cup 2026 co-hosts USA, Canada and Mexico is “gonna make it more exciting”.

“Tension is a good thing,” the US president added, as if this was managers exchanging barbs in press conferences.

Albania have never won a competitive match against a nation who are in the top-10 of the World Rankings.

Of the 19 such games they’ve played that have lost 17 and drawn two. England are currently ranked fourth.

Including friendlies, Albania have beaten France (ranked ninth) 1-0 in June 2015 thanks to a goal from Ergys Kaçe.

Following his release from Bayern Munich, Thomas Tuchel did not take up a coaching position until hired by the FA.

He explored what it feels like to be back on the training pitch and setting up plans for the future.

The England boss said: “There’s been many smiles and I think the players feel it, that I missed it [coaching] and them a lot – it’s a unique energy in a football team and a dressing room at training.

“They are very social and it was nice to see that they spend a lot of time together, which is very different to club football so it’s nice to observe and even nicer to be a part of it.”

Nottingham Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White told Thomas Tuchel he should have been in the England squad before earning a late call-up after Cole Palmer withdrew.

Speaking with BBC Radio 5 Live he told the story of his call-up and how he was upset with Tuchel’s initial decision.

Gibbs-White said: “I was upset, a little bit disappointed. But when he told me, I respected his decision. The standard of players is top level.

“I said back to him ‘I feel like I’ve done enough to get the call-up, considering the form level that we were in, but obviously you’re the manager, you make the decisions, and I respect that totally’.

“But then Sunday I got the call, so I was straight here. It was about 4 or 5 o’clock. He sent me a message to say ‘Are you free to talk?’ and I think I replied within 30 seconds.

“He phoned me up and said ‘Are you still upset with me, or do you want to come and join us and fancy training tomorrow?’

“There’s no question there. I said I’d love to come and join and train with the boys. I was smiling from ear to ear.”

Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham spent Euro 2024 in Germany, in Blankenhain and Berlin, Dusseldorf and Dortmund, Frankfurt and Cologne. Dan Burn spent it in an Airbnb.

It was another indication of the parallel lives of England’s resident superstars and the call-up with the most improbable back story in years, perhaps since Rickie Lambert or Chris Powell.

Thomas Tuchel’s maiden selection was expected to contain men from Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. It also included a player whose CV features Darlington, Yeovil and Asda.

Now that he has made it into the England squad, Dan Burn has high hopes of being selected for the 2026 World Cup.

He said: “I’m trying to take it camp by camp at the minute. I just want to make a big impression and try and make the next camp.

“But obviously it’s every kid’s dream to play in a World Cup or even to play for your country, so to know I’ve got that opportunity, if I take it, it’s special.”

One of the biggest stories for this England camp is the fate of Newcastle’s Dan Burn.

The 32-year-old central defender helped end the Magpies 70-year wait for a domestic trophy when they defeated Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final last Sunday.

On Monday morning he joined up with England for the first time and is on the verge of making his international debut.

“Yeah, I think I have been overlooked, but I understood it,” he revealed after joining up with the group. “What Gareth (Southgate) did to bring England from where it was to competing in finals showed that his method was very good.

“When the new manager came in there was a clean slate, but once you’ve been passed over during so many international breaks, you sort of accept the time has passed, but luckily the new manager has taken a chance on me.

“It’s probably made me very resilient. I don’t think I’ve had a straight-line trajectory in my career, I started really late and it’s been very up and down.

“I feel I’ve been doubted a lot over my career. I doubt many people who watched me play at Darlington would say that I’d be sat here doing a press conference for England.”

England are unbeaten in their last 31 World Cup qualifiers with 23 wis and eight draws during that run.

It is the longest ongoing run of any European nation.

Only once have the Three Lions lost their first qualifier of a campaign (13 wins, three draws).

It was a 1-0 defeat to Germany in October 2000 in their final game at the old Wembley.

The wildcard picks are curious rather than exciting, with 32-year-old Dan Burn called up. Tuchel showed the charisma that should characterise his time in charge by saying he was surprised Burn had never been capped, and joking: “He is such a tall guy, but obviously it is easy to overlook him.”