Michael Cox
speaker
164 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 6 Jun
Michael Cox’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
I think in terms of the starting 11, it tends to be about including the most talented players.
I think sometimes people forget when you go back through previous World Cup successes, often players who were really out of form or lacking fitness coming into the tournament end up having a massive impact.
I mean, the classic example would be Ronaldo, barely played for the two years before 2002 and ended up being the key player of the tournament.
I'd say to a certain extent, Iniesta going into 2010.
didn't have a great season either and he was Spain's hero now obviously they're on a very very high level and probably players you would make allowances for when it comes to the squad I think you do need I think there's been a shift towards managers wanting players who know their role within the squad and if you're going to be a backup they're being quite clear and quite firm and saying look you're probably not going to play particularly a lot of the reserve defenders but we need you there we need to be part of the squad I personally don't think that Tuchel's
picks for this squad the controversial admissions I should say were really based around that I think it's actually a bit more simple with him I think he basically wants two players for every position everyone to know their tactical role he hasn't got too many players where you're saying well he could play there he could play here it's pretty obvious who the wingers are who the number tens are who the midfielders are and I think he's basically just picked the two that he thinks are most likely to to perform best
I mean, whenever there's a controversial omission from a squad and people are like, how has this happened?
He's had a really good year at club level or whatever.
The answer in 90-95% of the cases is that that player hasn't played very well under the national team for that manager.
You know, Gio Pedra for Brazil is another one.
He's had a pretty good season for Chelsea.
I think he's a really good player.
But a couple of people I've spoken to who've watched all Brazil's games over the last couple of years have said, look, when he's got a chance, he hasn't really played well, particularly under Ancelotti.
And so I would suggest that actually the surprises this time around are probably less surprising than two years ago when Southgate left out both Henderson and Maguire.
Okay, they had fitness issues going into the tournament, but they were players who'd played well over a period of five or six years for Southgate and he seemed to really trust them.
Whereas this time around, you look at the players that Tuchel used in qualification when England won all eight games.
and I think of the top 17, 18 players who got minutes, there's only two that were left out, and they were Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has barely played for Arsenal this season until the last month, and actually Jared Bowen, who I think had a pretty good second half of the season for a struggling West Ham team, and did quite well for England, played quite well under Tuchel, and actually I think is the kind of player that England could need with pace going in behind Harry Kane.
So I was actually more surprised at, well, not the Lewis Skelly omission, but I was more surprised at the Bowen omission than Palmer or Foden because Tuchel's never really looked particularly keen on them.
And so if you, you know, you can query his selection decisions, but he has been consistent.
I mean, he's had a clear plan and he has stuck to it.
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