Thomas Tuchel, England's head coach, announced a new squad and held a press conference afterwards. During the conference, he discussed the return of players such as Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer to the England national team, and answered questions about his feelings following the World Cup, the competition for places in the squad, and England's journey in the Nations League. This article is the first part of the press conference.

Thomas, I'm Kaveh Solhekol from Sky Sports News.

I know.

First of all, both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer are back in your squad. What have they done to earn recalls?

Let me be direct with you.

What have they done to win back your confidence?

Both of them started the season very well. They haven't done anything wrong. It was simply that at that time, we chose other players. Now it's a new competition. Some positions have more injuries than others, and some have fewer.

Cole still has the opportunity to be as influential as he was before, and his statistics are back now. He's assisting again and scoring important goals for his team. That's why he's in the squad.

I think he has something to prove, and so does Trent. Trent was never off the list of players we were considering, and he was never a player we wouldn't consider calling up. Now it's his opportunity. He can come to camp and show his best abilities. This season he's started well in two different positions for Real Madrid, and when he's with us, he'll train at right-back.

Still on Trent – it seems you don't fully trust him as England's right-back yet, is that correct?

No, that's not correct.

What does he need to do in the coming weeks to prove to you that he deserves to be England's right-back?

Perform. Simple as that. This is competition. I understand why you're asking, because he wasn't with us at the World Cup. We trusted other players during the World Cup, and I still stand by that decision.

Now it's time for him to fight for his position. He always says he's willing to compete, especially for England. He's willing to fight for his position. So now it's up to him to prove it. We're happy to welcome him to camp. This camp is long, and I'm confident he'll perform well.

Hello Thomas, as Kaveh just mentioned, we've recalled Trent, Palmer, and Lewis-Skelly. I'm sure there are other players too. Does this prove that with you, no one's path is completely blocked, and the door is always open?

Yes, 100%. The door is always open. But first, you have to open that door with your performances. At the same time, what's equally important is your commitment and dedication to the team's spirit, because we've built something very special.

Before this latest squad selection, I initially thought there would be more continuity from the World Cup squad. But many players from the World Cup squad couldn't join this camp. I've just noted down the list, including Reece James, Bukayo Saka, Dean Henderson, John Stones, Jordan Henderson, and Jude Bellingham – all unavailable due to injury.

So this isn't complete continuity from the World Cup squad. We need fresh players to step up, because those players were crucial in building the cohesion, team spirit, and mentality that took us deep in the World Cup.

We won't compromise, back down, or make concessions on this. So other players must step up.

That's fundamentally how I view this camp. Other players need to step up, and they'll get plenty of game time. All being well, my current thinking is not to change the starting XI too much in any single match.

Of course, we'll make sensible substitutions. If it doesn't make sense to give some players excessive minutes, we won't do that. To answer your question directly: the door is always open. You always have the chance to impress us, and you always have the chance to fight for your position.

Can I ask briefly about a player who came close to selection but just missed out – Josh King, for instance? I know Ben White is also injured.

Yes, Ben White withdrew due to injury. He started the season brilliantly at Arsenal and is back in top form, particularly on the left side. He's played well alongside Saka. If we had two players like that on the same flank, it would be very valuable for us. But unfortunately, he couldn't play at the World Cup, and he can't join this camp either.

With Ben, it's become a pattern – whenever there's a crucial moment or when we're about to call him up, he's always unavailable.

You mentioned Josh King very well. Before the World Cup, in our camp in the United States, we had three players training with us: Alex Scott, Leo Ostigard, and Josh. All three were excellent squad members.

This wasn't just because they're good people and very reliable, but also because they have outstanding personalities. They demonstrated quality and courage on the pitch, along with football intelligence, which is excellent. Josh in particular started the season brilliantly at Fulham.

He nearly made the cut, but ultimately I felt I should keep the squad smaller and trust the players who are actually in camp. In Josh's position – number 10 – we have Palmer and Bellingham, so we must trust them. Josh will join the U21s this time, but he came very close to selection and remains firmly on our radar.

Thomas, I'm Kelly Brown from beIN Sports. England finished the World Cup with their best performance in 60 years, but you've spoken about the pain of losing to Argentina in the semi-final. What could be better than starting with a match against the current world champions right now? What do you want to show England fans in this fixture?

I think this is an excellent start for our Nations League journey. Overall, across the past 18 months, we've performed very well and been very positive. Our qualifying campaign was perfect, followed by two warm-up matches, and then eight World Cup matches.

That means we played 10 matches in total in the United States – eight wins, one draw, and unfortunately one loss. That loss was very painful for us, and it still is. But a 10-match run like that is what we're hoping to replicate. Now our goal is to go as far as possible in the Nations League.

If we can reach the final four, we'll play another 10 matches. The Nations League is at least six matches, but we hope to make it 10 and create another run like that. Actually, I still feel like we're starting the next journey, the next phase, already with the match against France.

Because after we lost to Argentina, we were eliminated from the World Cup in one sense, but not entirely – there was still the third-place match to play. The way we played in that match, the way we won, and the opponent we beat – France may have been the best team in the world at that time, possibly the strongest team in the world – that was a difficult and impressive victory. I think that win set the tone for everything that followed.

Now the next match is against Spain, the current world champions. We feel the gap between us is narrowing, and we feel we're getting very close to them. We want to prove that. The tickets are sold out, and it will be an exciting match. Our motivation couldn't be higher, because we're facing the world champions.

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