England can finally shift the conversation along from their summer pain when they begin their Nations League campaign on Saturday night.
A mouth-watering visit from world champions Spain is about as tough as it gets as Thomas Tuchel and his players bid to move on from their World Cup heartache.
Plenty has been said and written on the semi-final defeat to Argentina but Tuchel is understandably keen to move on. They now have a tough Nations League to negotiate with a Wembley test against Spain first up before games against Czechia and Croatia.
Speaking in the build-up to the opener, Tuchel admits that he is not a big fan of the newly-extended international window.
“I am not in favour of it. After a long tournament, having another long period together is very demanding emotionally and physically for the players,” said the German.
“I think the players would have loved three short windows. I can hardly think of a period in club football where you have matches and a turnaround like we have now. We have Saturday-Tuesday and then another Saturday-Tuesday, so only two days in between each game. That sounds too condensed if you have two-and-a-half weeks together. It does not feel 100 per cent right, I have to say. But it is what it is. We have this window and we have used the time for some very good training sessions so far, and we want to add one more to that.”
Meanwhile, Saturday’s clash against Luis de la Fuente’s side will bring captain Harry Kane one step closer to becoming England’s most-capped player.
Peter Shilton holds that particular record with 125 caps – a number Kane will surely surpass before the year is out (England have another two games in November).
Speaking about the honour of representing his country so many times, the Bayern Munich man said: “Growing up, the dream was just to play for England and being most capped was never even in my mind at that stage. The journey has been incredible to this stage, and we have achieved so much as a group and personally achieved so much and been in finals, taking the England team to a level that it hasn’t been for a long, long time.
“So, to be four away from the all-time is just incredible and hopefully I am able to play the four games and then be back in November and be able to break it.”
England will be coming up against a well-oiled Spain side that are now European and World champions – and it appears that they are not slowing down any time soon, with so many talented players yet to even get near their peak.
A big part of their success appears to be the consistency and continuity that they have. The latest squad for this clutch of Nations League games includes 22 of the 26 players who sealed a second world crown out in North America.
