England World Cup squad: How Cole Palmer and Phil Foden lost the battle for Thomas Tuchel’s No.10

Aside from a few exceptions, including another Manchester City player in John Stones, Tuchel has shown that reputation is less about form.

If standards drop, there is a line of players waiting to take advantage.

Tuchel was always set to sign Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham, although the England coach has expressed some doubts in the past.

Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers, who scored Aston Villa’s third goal in their 3-0 Europa League win over Freiburg, has been trusted by Tuchel throughout his tenure.

But Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White, who is joint top scorer in the Premier League this season with 14 goals, has not done enough to get on the plane.

Gibbs-White has made six international appearances for England, but has not featured since the 3-0 friendly win over Wales in October.

It may help that his only competitive appearances under Tuchel came in two World Cup qualifiers against minnows Andorra.

Although he scored six goals in his past six matches with the club, that did not change the coach’s opinion.

The winner appears to be Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze, who has consistently played well on the ball even if the stats don’t show it.

Seven goals and two assists in Arsenal’s Premier League title-winning campaign does not sound impressive – but he did score three goals in six World Cup qualifiers for Tuchel.

Eze missed the friendlies in March due to injury, opening the door for Foden and Palmer to force their way into Tuchel’s plans.

England drew 1-1 with Uruguay and lost 1-0 to Japan, both performances largely uninspiring.

So Eze’s absence proved to Tuchel how important he was in offering Bellingham and Rogers something different.

Eze is a player who can add speed and unpredictability to change the way a team plays.

At one stage, Foden and Palmer were expected to be starters, not even alternative options like Eze.

Now they have to live with the fact that they are not considered good enough, at least in terms of level, for the team.