Reece James to be handed first England start since 2022 by Thomas Tuchel

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Reece James will make his first start for England since the autumn of 2022 tonight against Latvia at Wembley - Robin Jones/Getty Images

Thomas Tuchel, the England head coach, is expected to name Chelsea captain Reece James in his starting XI to face Latvia in the World Cup qualifier at Wembley Stadium this evening. The match gets under way at 7.45pm.

Telegraph Sport will be first with all of the team news, and will provide minute-by-minute commentary, comment and analysis from Tuchel’s second match in charge of the England national side.

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05:26 PM GMT​

Team news: James to make first start since 2022​

Reece James is in line to be handed his first England start for almost three years by Thomas Tuchel in tonight’s World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

Chelsea captain James made a substitutes’ appearance against Albania last Friday and is now expected to start for England for the first time since September 2022.

It remains to be seen whether Tuchel uses James on the right or the left, having said the defender can play in both full-back positions. James replaced left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly at the end of the victory over Albania.

James’s England opportunities have been severely impacted by injuries but Tuchel is a big fan of the 25-year-old.

The pair won the Champions League together at Chelsea and James played some of his best club football under Tuchel.

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Reece James, second left, won the Champions League under Thomas Tuchel in 2021 - Nick Potts/PA Wire

Former Chelsea central defender Marc Guehi is also hoping to start against Latvia in the centre of defence, having not been selected for the Albania match.

Newcastle United’s Dan Burn admitted that he had felt tired in the second half of the Albania game, which could prompt Tuchel to look at Guehi next to Ezri Konsa. Levi Colwill is expected to be on the bench.

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04:18 PM GMT​

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04:17 PM GMT​

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04:13 PM GMT​

Preview: Function and form​

Good evening and welcome to live coverage of the Uefa Group K, 2026 World Cup qualifier between England and Latvia from Wembley. Both sides started their campaigns with victories on Friday, England by virtue of goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly and captain Harry Kane dispatching Albania homewards after a far from convincing home display and Latvia beating Andorra 1-0 in the principality in front of 957 patriots and masochists.

England have never played Latvia though recent draws have pitted them against their Baltic neighbours and allies, Lithuania and Estonia, eight times, winning all of them. The visitors’ head coach, Paolo Nicolato, was appointed from the Italy U21 side last year with a brief to arrest a dismal run of results and build for the future but he has struggled almost as much as his predecessors. Before their victory over Andorra, ranked 171st of 210 sides by Fifa, Latvia had won only two of their preceding 10 games and both of them were over the Faroe Islands. During the slide that has left them ranked in 140th position, 136 places below England, they had lost home and away to Armenia and North Macedonia and drawn with the Faroes and Liechtenstein.

In short, then, a team such as Albania ranked 65th in the world with three genuinely good Serie A/Ligue 1/Liga players can drop into a low block, frustrate, smother and make England look pedestrian as they probe ponderously, like a drunken man jiggling his front door lock with the wrong key. A team as poor as Latvia, with one St Johnstone defender, Daniels Balodis, and a South Korean K1 League occasional striker in Vladislavs Gutkovskis, are there to be taken to the cleaners.

To that end, Thomas Tuchel’s precision strikes on Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden should have left them in no doubt that in a return to prioritising the historic strengths of the English game, the head coach values dribbling, direct wingers rather than passers. The main flaw in this is that Foden is not really a winger but a No 10 or inside forward. He’s the reigning footballer of the year but will never play in his preferred role unless Jude Bellingham is injured. Perhaps this is Tuchel’s way of giving him enough rope and, unlike Eriksson, McClaren and Capello, laying the ground of making a call re Bellingham/Parker/Foden in a way they never did over Lampard and Gerrard.

With 16 months to build a World Cup-winning team and a famously ruthless pragmatic streak, he will not be indulging his most talented players who do not do as he wants where he wants for very long. If selected they need to take the handbrake off. For Tuchel ‘functional’ is not a taboo word.

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