England manager Thomas Tuchel said he had a “feeling” to start Morgan Rogers in his side’s huge World Cup semi-final and believes he can produce “something special” in Atlanta.
Rogers is expected to start on the right, which is not his favoured position, but he brought an injection of energy and was fresh for extra time against Norway in the quarter-finals.
The 23-year-old Aston Villa midfielder is coming off a stellar Premier League campaign where he scored 10 goals and made six assists and won the Europa League for Unai Emery’s side.
Rogers had appeared to be in Tuchel’s preferred line-up before the World Cup, although he lost his place to childhood friend Jude Bellingham – who has since excelled in the No 10 position.
This will be his second start of the tournament, following the 2-0 win over Panama in the groups stages, but Tuchel said he was impressed by Rogers in training this week.
“It’s a feeling, it’s just a feeling from the coach, a stomach feeling,” Tuchel told the BBC. “I feel that he has something special to give today. I felt he was very strong in the last match against Norway.
”And in between he had an outstanding training session to just follow up on that performance. Yeah it’s just a feeling.”
Rogers started England’s 2-0 win over Panama in the group stages but was not used in the last-32 against DR Congo and featured for just one minute against Mexico in the last-16.
Tuchel, who is yet to name an unchanged line-up at this World Cup, has also made alterations to his defence and has brought in Reece James and Djed Spence for Ezri Konsa and Nico O’Reilly.
James missed England’s win over Mexico due to a hamstring but made a timely return from the bench against Norway, while Spence also impressed as a substitute in the quarter-finals.
“Well, they’re specialists and they deserve to play,” Tuchel said. “Reece is back and has the quality to to play on the very highest level. He shows no nerves.
”And we want the agility and the speed of Djed. He was very strong in the last matches from from the bench and I think we need to get the full-backs involved in our attacks.”
About the Author
