Thomas Tuchel explains Cole Palmer omission: ‘He misses too many opportunities’

Thomas Tuchel says he has “enough” No 10s in his England squad without selecting Cole Palmer , who has paid the price for pulling out of the September camp last time out. The Chelsea star was a notable omission from Tuchel’s 25-man squad ahead of the Nations League games against Croatia and Spain and he was available for selection. Tuchel criticised Palmer for missing “too many camps” and “too many opportunities” following his withdrawal from last month’s group and the manager has opted to stick with the players who impressed him last time. Tuchel has named several No 10s in his group, Morgan Rogers , Morgan Gibbs-White , Eberechi Eze , Jude Bellingham , as well as first-time call-ups Josh King and Jobe Bellingham, who both offer versatility. Palmer has not played for England since March and was missed the World Cup after struggling with injuries last season. He has played in all nine of Chelsea’s Premier League matches this season, but was also sent off in the defeat to Tottenham. Speaking at a press conference at Wembley, Tuchel explained: “It counts when you are in camp and I just said it last time, he misses too many opportunities to impress. It was a long camp. It was two-and-a-half weeks and the players and the boys who were in camp built something extraordinary throughout these weeks. “That's why the credit goes to them. The trust is for them. If you are in camp, this is your chance to impress. So it's not personal. We will never assume that Cole is not in the mindset to come and desperate to play for his country, but the competition is on and the players who were in camp did an amazing job and kept their place.” Tuchel added: “There are enough of No 10s, and we stick to the guys who were in camp because camp was excellent and we were happy with the last two-and-half weeks that we had together. ”The impact of all the players was, was immense and, throughout the whole camp, and that's why we stick mainly with the group. And we stick with all the offensive players. We have Josh King, as a new player in there, but he can play four positions.” More follows