Butt Backs Tuchel to Axe Big Names at World Cup

Nicky Butt does not see a comfort zone for England’s biggest stars at the 2026 World Cup. Not under Thomas Tuchel.

The former Manchester United and England midfielder believes the national team’s new manager will be utterly ruthless with reputations, and he can already see one potential casualty: Jude Bellingham.

In Butt’s eyes, Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers is the man waiting to take his place.

Bellingham under pressure, Rogers on the rise

Bellingham heads into the tournament carrying more questions than usual. A shoulder problem and a hamstring injury chopped up his season at Real Madrid, limiting his rhythm and forcing him to fight for form and fitness. He still managed 40 appearances in all competitions, starting 30 of them, but it was a stop‑start campaign for a player used to dominating the stage.

Rogers, by contrast, arrives on a surge.

The 23-year-old has just helped Aston Villa to a Europa League triumph and a fourth-place finish in the Premier League, posting 13 goals and 11 assists across those two competitions. His club season ended with him looking like a player on an upward curve, not one clinging on.

That momentum has carried into the international set-up. Since his England debut in 2024, Rogers has featured in 13 of the 14 matches available to him. He is no longer a novelty call-up; he is part of the furniture. Butt thinks he could soon be rearranging it.

Speaking to Paddy Power, Butt put Rogers in elite company, listing Harry Kane, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Bellingham as the established superstars before adding that Rogers “could be the one that really stands out.”

The key variable, in Butt’s view, is Bellingham’s start to the tournament. If the Real Madrid midfielder explodes into form, the conversation changes. If he doesn’t, the door swings open.

A Tuchel player in the No 10 role

Butt sees a clear tactical fit between Tuchel and Rogers. He describes the Villa man as “a Tuchel kind of player,” particularly in that No 10 role where space is tight and decisions must be sharp.

Rogers’ threat from distance looms large in Butt’s thinking. He points to the volume of World Cup goals that come from outside the box, with teams camped deep and reluctant to open up. In that landscape, a forward who can step in off the line and whip one into the corner becomes priceless.

Butt likes Rogers’ timing as well as his talent. The forward “started the season on fire,” hit a dip, then finished strongly again. That resilience matters in tournament football, where form can swing within a week and players have to ride out dips on the fly.

He can already picture Rogers’ role in the early stages: a weapon off the bench, dropped into tight games when legs tire and concentration slips. Butt even admits to “a sneaking feeling” that the Villa man could come on a few times and score “really important goals,” swinging knockout ties and altering England’s path.

From there, the claim is bold: Rogers, he says, has the ability to emerge as England’s best player at the World Cup.

Tuchel’s hard edge and the Bellingham question

All of that hinges on Tuchel’s willingness to cut through status. Butt has no doubt on that front.

He argues that England’s starting XI “picks itself” for now, and that Rogers will not walk into it. The hierarchy is clear. Yet Butt insists that Tuchel “doesn't give a f*ck about player egos or the perception.” If Bellingham is not “flying,” Butt fully expects Tuchel to take him “out of the firing line” and drop Rogers straight in.

In Butt’s mind, that is how tournaments create new stars. Players arrive as bit-part options and leave as headline names. He has seen it before, and he senses Rogers has the game and the temperament to be the next example.

Doubts over England’s chances

For all his enthusiasm about Rogers, Butt is far less upbeat about England’s overall prospects.

He sees a young squad walking into brutal conditions: heat, humidity, long-distance travel, and the weight of a nation that now treats semi-finals as the bare minimum. He sets his own bar at reaching the “final stages” – a semi-final or a final – and admits that even a last-four exit might be painted as failure back home.

He does not share that view. With the age profile of the squad and the challenges of the tournament, he thinks a semi-final would be an achievement. But he is blunt: “I can't see us winning it… it just doesn't seem possible. I'm not confident.”

Failure, for him, is clear-cut: not getting out of the group. Anything short of the semi-finals, though, will likely trigger a backlash, especially given the players Tuchel has left at home.

Butt namechecks Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Harry Maguire and Trent Alexander-Arnold as high-profile omissions. All, he notes, are out of form, yet their absence strips away one layer of excuse. If England fall early, the focus turns straight to the manager.

And Butt does not see Tuchel riding that out.

He believes that if England fall short of the latter stages, Tuchel will be gone – not only pushed by The FA, but drawn back to the day-to-day intensity of club football that suits him best. The England job, Butt says, is “one of the biggest jobs in the world,” but it is also unforgiving. A failed World Cup, and both sides may decide they have had enough.

Brazil, Argentina, Spain – and a brutal route

When he scans the wider field, Butt keeps coming back to the same names.

He points to the climate and potential route – including the prospect of facing Mexico in Mexico City in the last 16 – as major obstacles for England. Those same conditions, though, feed into his list of favourites.

Spain, he says, look well-equipped: technically secure, comfortable in the heat, and likely to travel with a huge following. He expects them to be “there or thereabouts.”

Yet two teams sit more firmly in his mind: Brazil and Argentina. Butt accepts that Brazil no longer boast the galáctico roll-call of Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos, but the badge still carries weight, and the environment plays to their strengths. Argentina, as reigning world champions, need no introduction.

“It’d be crazy,” he says, not to see them as frontrunners.

So England head into 2026 with a manager ready to swing the axe, a rising playmaker who might push out one of the country’s crown jewels, and a former international warning that even a semi-final might not be enough to keep the knives away.

If Tuchel really does ignore egos and rides the form of players like Rogers, England could look very different by the time this World Cup is over. The question is whether that transformation comes in triumph – or in the fallout of another campaign that ends one step short.