It is the start of a new era for England on Friday, because Thomas Tuchel is going on the touchline for the first time as head coach.
The German officially started in his new role in January, after he was mentioned as the permanent successor to Gareth Southgate.
Lee Carsley saw England before the turn of the year through their Nations League campaign, but did not get the job full time.
Tuchel has presented such a comfortable start as you could ask. Albania and Latvia, both on a home floor.
Of course, Albania provided some Vonk and Vecht at Euro 2024, but England is fixed favorites for this world cup qualification at Wembley.
However, the selection of Tuchel raised some eyebrows.
Marcus Rashford returned to Aston Villa from the cold after a few weeks, although Tuchel's selection by Jordan Henderson and then Burn was perhaps the most surprising.
Southgate stood by the midfielder after his move from Liverpool to the Saudi Pro League, although he then left the former Reds captain from his Euro 2024 team, despite the fact that Henderson had made a switch to Ajax in the January transfer star last year.
Henderson has 81 English caps. Since his international debut in November 2010, only Harry Kane (103), Kyle Walker (93), John Stones (83) and Raheem Sterling (82) have played more times for the Drie Leeuwen.
Whether Henderson will perform against Albania is still to be seen, because Tuchel wants to make the strongest start of his term of office.
What is expected?
England has won all six of their games against Albania.
They only have a better 100% profit ratio against Luxembourg (9/9), San Marino (8/8) and Malta (7/7).
Albania has scored only one goal in six meetings with England, with an Altin Rraklli strike in a 3-1 defeat in March 2001.
It is their lowest goals per match (0.17) against each nation that they have confronted three or more times.
Given that record, it is no surprise to see that England are overwhelming favorites, according to the Supercomputer of Opta, who ran 10,000 to the simulations led by data before this game.
The three lions came on top of 80.1% of that, while Albania only gets a chance of winning of 7.7%.
So the opportunities are very in favor of England. Under Carsley, England won five of their Six Nations League matches and his interim campaign was completed with a 5-0 routing of the Republic of Ireland in November.
While the Tuchel team differs from the One Carsley that has been picked, the former coach of Bayern Munich has still chosen a pool of players who are full of quality and must be able to show what they can do against a team that is 65th in the world by FIFA.
“He wants the standards high, from the first day.”
Jordan Pickford prior to Friday @FifaworldCup qualification pic.twitter.com/D1IMX93UXW
– England (@england) March 19, 2025
A new era
As mentioned, Tuchel did not commit everyone with his selection.
Nottingham Forest -fans in particular felt that they had no representatives in the team, especially given their form this season.
Tuchel, however, has since called Morgan Gibbs-White, although that may be due to concerns about the fitness of Cole Palmer.
GIBBS-WHITE has included 40 Premier League-League-oriented involvement for Forest (15 goals, 25 assists), overtaking Bryan Roy (39). Only Ian Woan (44) has more combined goals and helps them in the top flight for them.
Then Burn received his first call-up in England, and although he is 32, the defender earns some international recognition.
Burn had a great week. He scored in the 2-1 victory of Newcastle United on Liverpool in Sunday's EFL Cup final, because the Magpies put an end to a waiting time for a large trophy.
He made a leading 11 approvals in that competition and won seven of his nine duels.
In the Premier League this season, no player has won more air duels than the former Brighton defender (101).
Burn has made this period of 20 blocks in the top flight and is in 16th place in the top flight in general, while he stands 12th for approvals (135) and Joint-Ninth for heads (69).
At the top of the field, Harry Kane wants to use the year in international colors.
Robert Lewandowski (35) is the only player in Europe's top five competitions that scores more goals in all competitions than Kane (32) in 2024-25 and, while playing under Tuchel in Bayern, the captain of England scored 44 goals.
Since Kane appeared in a World Cup -qualification match in September 2016, only Lewandowski (25) and Cristiano Ronaldo (21) have scored more qualifying goals among Europe players than Kane (17 in 14 games). The Bayern attacker has also been involved in six goals in two games against Albania (four goals, two assists).
Tuchel is out to expand a long series of bosses of England to have won their first game. Each of the last 10 has won their opener since Bobby Robson pulled 1-1 with Denmark in 1982.
The only permanent manager who lost his first match was Alf Ramsey in 1963 against France.
Out to cause problems
Albania has never won a competitive game against a nation in the top 10 of FIFA World Rankings (D2 L17).
Although in June 2015 they defeated France (ninth) 1-0 thanks to a goal from Verys Kace. They also defeated Italy (at that time outside the top 10) in their Euro 2024 opener last year.
However, that famous victory does not appear to be enough for Albania to make progress. They pulled 2-2 with Croatia in their second game before they lost 1-0 to the final champions Spain.
However, they have players with experience in Europe's top five competitions.
Thomas Zitteosha excelled in Lazio and was in Brentford until last year when he came to Aek Athens.
Armando Broja returned to action for Everton last weekend and can threaten an attack, although he still has to score a goal this season.
Albania, however, is against it. They are confronted with an England team that is unbeaten in their last 31 World Cup qualification competitions (W23 D8), the longest running run of a European nation. Only once did the three lions lost their first qualifying match of a campaign (W13 D3) and lost 1-0 in Germany in October 2000 in their last game in the Oude Wembley.
It is intriguing that England has won 16 of their last 17 internationals against Nations whose name begins with a (D1), in which 15 clean sheets are held.
The last 'A' nation to beat England was Australia in Upton Park in February 2003, while in a competitive match Argentina was at the 1986 World Cup.
Players to watch
England – Jude Bellingham
Bellingham will break a record that has been with his next performance by England since 2007.
It will mark its 41st cap, which means that the Real Madrid star will surpass the national record of Wayne Rooney of 40 Caps while he is younger under 22.
Since he made his debut in England in November 2020, Bellingham has contributed to 12 goals (six goals, six assists), a count that was improved by only Bukayo Saka (16) and Kane (45) at the time. He has been involved in 10 goals in his last 15 performances for England (five goals, five assists).
Albania – Armando Broja
It has been another injury hit campaign for Broja, who is on loan from Chelsea in Everton.
The 23-year-old has only made six Premier League performances for the Toffees and only registers in the top flight for 168 minutes.
He has scored five goals in 23 performances for Albania in all competitions, and if Broja gets the chance to stand up on Friday, he will certainly show what he can do if he plays for his clubfutus.
Comments