Thomas Tuchel adds three coaches to England backroom staff including ex-Chelsea star

Thomas Tuchel was unveiled as England’s new manager back in October, with his contract starting on January 1 following the end of interim boss Lee Carsley’s spell

New England manager Thomas Tuchel has appointed former Chelsea goalkeeper Henrique Hilario and two other coaches to fill out his backroom staff.

Tuchel, 51, officially started his role with the FA on Thursday, nearly three months after being announced Gareth Southgate’s permanent successor. The German, who becomes England’s third-ever foreign manager, allowed interim boss Lee Carsley to complete this year’s Nations League campaign, as the Three Lions topped their group and secured promotion.

Now it’s time to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers, with England drawn in a group containing Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra. Tuchel’s first game will be at home to Albania at Wembley on Friday, March 21, but until this week we only knew that he’d be joined in the dugout by assistant manager Anthony Barry.

Highly-rated coach Barry worked with Tuchel at both Chelsea and Bayern Munich, and most recently worked under Roberto Martinez for Portugal. Hilario, who played for the Blues between 2006 and 2014 before returning two years later as a coach, has been added to Tuchel’s backroom staff as a goalkeeper coach alongside Nicolas Mayer and James Melbourne.

Frenchman Mayer, a performance coach, first worked with Tuchel at Paris Saint-Germain before the pair reunited at Bayern. Melbourne, meanwhile, has been Chelsea’s chief analyst for the past decade, having joined the club 20 years ago.

England say that more coaching appointments will be confirmed in due course, with Carsley and his staff returning to their roles with the under-21 squad. Ahead of the March qualifying double-header, which includes a first-ever meeting with Latvia, Tuchel will attend a host of Premier League matches to watch players who are under consideration for call-ups.

Will England win the 2026 World Cup under Thomas Tuchel? Give us your prediction in the comments section.

His first fixture will be Tottenham against Newcastle at 12:30 on Saturday. Tuchel says that he’ll be based in London, recently joking to Sky Sports: “I will not tell you my address! Otherwise you’ll be in front of my house every week! I like you but not so much!

“Of course we will be very regularly in St George’s Park [the FA’s national football centre] because this is where our base is and this is where we want to create an atmosphere and this is where we are happy to engage with all the people who work for the FA. We want to interact with them, we want to use quality and feel the place.

“We will watch a lot of matches starting in January. I want to see the matches live, I will speak to the players – but also not interfere too much because they are players of the clubs and should focus on that. You will see us in stadiums a lot from January onwards.”

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