England

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England boss Thomas Tuchel on whether John Stones is ready to play a big role: "Yes, otherwise I wouldn’t have picked him. He’s excited to come and I am excited to have him. I am a huge believer in John. I believe he is a world class player, an amazing character and a proven winner. He knows how to adapt to a winning culture. He knows how to adapt tactically on the field.

"He is still on the highest level when I see him play, when I see him move. We analysed a lot of his training data because I get your question, there is not a lot of proof in the last half of the season unfortunately. The good news is he was available. He was not out, he was available. The bad news was he wasn’t selected as much as we all hoped for.

"But I think we can advantage to our late start in the tournament in this case. We still have over four weeks until our first match. We will reconnect with our principles. We have the chance to let him play two friendly matches and then I hope and truly believe he will have a strong tournament for us."

England

England boss Thomas Tuchel on the quality of his selection, especially Morgan Rogers and Jude Bellingham: "They are just two of the names who are potential starters in the same position. There is still variety in these positions, so they can also play together, that should not be a problem.

"If they compete for one position through the tournament, I think it is possible to compete as accomplices and you don't have to be enemies. In the example of Morgan Rogers and Jude Bellingham, they are friends anyway. We have a couple of others. Bukayo Saka, Noni who fight for the same place in the club. I strongly believe it is possible that you fight for your place and still push your friend, colleague, especially in international football to the best possible performance. We took a lot of care about that, this energy is right.

"They know their roles, I have no doubt that we chose the right players and I have no doubt that Jude and Morgan will get along very well and I have no doubt that they both will be decisive for us."

England

England boss Thomas Tuchel on whether he feels he can end England's 60-year wait to win the World Cup: "I heard recently a quote from Rafa Nadal, who said ‘I’m not a winner, I am a competitor, I’m a challenger’. That is basically how I arrive in the US for this tournament. I arrive with hunger, I arrive with excitement and I arrive as a competitor and as a challenger. I think that is the role for us as a team.

"This is how I want the team to play, this is how I want the team to develop. This is why we picked that squad and this is why I’m so sure we picked the right squad. It is about building a brotherhood. It is about building excitement and a certain energy.

"Then I feel we can transmit this to our fans who are either in the stadium or back here in England pushing. Once we get this energy right, everything is possible. We said it very early, we will try to go all the way. We will try to win this tournament.

"Very, very quickly, it makes no sense to try to digest the whole cake at once. We will chunk it up. We will try to have the best possible pre-camp, we will try to have a little break in between and then go to Kansas and the locations and go into the tunnel to start the group phase."

England

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England boss Thomas Tuchel on whether he will be bringing extra players to the squad: "I think Dean [Henderson] is not an issue, we have Jason Steele in camp. Wwe can start with three goalkeepers and we have four.

"We will take some young players out who will train with us and keep the squad in the size that we need, we have all the possibilities for the two friendly matches to take care about the minutes and the load off the players so this will be Alex Scott, Rio Ngumoha, Josh King and there will be one more player which we cannot name because it is not confirmed yet. I am happy that these guys are with us, especially Alex who was even on the list of 55 and had a disappointing phone call as well, that he didn't make the first cut but the reaction was outstanding - the commitment, the wish to be in pre-camp and to just be a step closer to the team showed me his character. I am delighted he is with us because he was a close call and gets a chance to take a step closer and to get a cap."

Once we've wrapped up the remainder of Thomas Tuchel's news conference, we'll be joined by BBC Sport chief football writer Phil McNulty for a Q&A at around 12:30.

He'll be answering all your questions with regard to Tuchel's confirmed 26-man squad.

If you want to beat the queue and get your questions in now, you can do so by clicking the 'Get Involved' button.

Ben Ramsdale
BBC Sport

So you're saying we've got a chance, Alan...

England

England boss Thomas Tuchel on how he decided his leadership group: "We had a March camp and we had a June camp and it was pretty clear for us who should be in there. I see no value in sharing it with you to be honest, so I will keep it to myself.

"It’s a group of five or six players and there is always like a fluidity that is possible in the group, but they took ownership. They took care and they were massively influential.

"I was very, very happy with the way they acted and interacted and how they stepped up, so there is no need to change that."

England

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England boss Thomas Tuchel on Harry Maguire's statement after finding out he did not make the England squad: "I was a bit surprised, but I respect his personality a lot, I respect his quality a lot. He has had an outstanding season, I can see the disappointment, I can see the reason behind the disappointment.

"Still I was a bit surprised because we had a private conversation and he had the chance to express his feelings which he did and this is fair enough because I can see all the reasons why he could be in the squad. But, the decision is that we stood firmly with our central defenders that carried us through September, October and November.

"Some of them are part of the leadership group that took ownership and set the standards high. It was a decision for these 26 players, even if it feels against individuals."

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England boss Thomas Tuchel on fearing leaving world class talents at home: "No, I don’t fear because I am very confident in the group that we chose of which we arrive with. Very difficult decisions, painful conversations. Difficult for the players, difficult to explain to the players. What we’re trying to achieve as a team and we try to nominate a balanced squad. If everyone is selected, it was a given that from these 55 players, we have to leave some extraordinary talents, some extraordinary personalities at home.

"Either way, if we picked all those names, some other big five names would have been out and we would be talking about these names. It comes with the job. I like these kinds of decisions, even if it sometimes took weeks and sometimes, months to clarify the decisions. I think they bring clarity. At the end, they bring a certain edge that is necessary.

"I try to explain for the players the reason they could be in camp. Did they do anything wrong? No. Could they be in camp? Yes. 100% sure. But for some of them, it is just the amount of players in a certain position. We didn’t want to play the players out of position so much and we wanted to give them a clear role and it comes with difficult and maybe hard choices in the build up to the tournament."

England

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England boss Thomas Tuchel on people being surprised by the inclusion of Ivan Toney: "Also a bit of a surprise to us [his inclusion], when it came down to all different kinds of scenarios he was back in the picture. I had fantastic feedback from his club coach, who was my player and I have a close connection with him, always fantastic feedback about his role there, about his ability, his fitness.

"We could see that he still collects the numbers, I think he has very special skills that could help us, the situations, scenarios when we are chasing a result. I think he can be a very valuable addition to Harry Kane, he can be present in the box when we are pushing for a goal.

"He can take attention off other strikers, he has a natural presence within the box, he is a natural finisher, he can help us with set pieces, he is very strong in there. Very good in using his body and not to forget, he is a world class penalty taker. He ticks some boxes that we wanted to be ticked."

England

England boss Thomas Tuchel on players who have missed out: "It is important for me to say that I am very grateful to all the players who have helped us qualify, to the players who have had one of six camps with us. Very grateful and I tried to show my respect and appreciation for what they have done, in telling them in person or phone calls in the last three days about my decision.

"So I called every player that was at least once with us, personally, to tell them my decision, even if it was a painful decision or it was a disappointing message. We believe it has to be delivered from me, I will not go into details of course but I tried to explain and express my appreciation and respect for the player."

England

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England boss Thomas Tuchel on the leadership group: "We have a decent leadership group in camp. The leadership group took care and ownership in a very special way, from September onwards.

"They created a culture, they set the tone, they set the standards created and took care of the standards and we were very happy with that and that is why the maturity of this team and selection is from the players who were with us in September, October and November."

England

Djed Spence was "excellent in every single match he played for us," says Thomas Tuchel, when asked about the inclusion of the Spurs defender.

"He is the quickest player in the squad and loves defending," he adds.

Full quotes to follow...

England

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More from England boss Thomas Tuchel: "The squad has a significant number of players that will compete for starting minutes and starting places, that also gives us the chance to rotate on a high level and a significant number of players who carry the sportive responsibility on the highest level.

"We have a huge chunk of youthfulness in the squad. We have six players who have won titles with the under-21s. We have Kobbie, who is still young and has won his titles, we have Nico O'Reilly on top who is young and already won his medals.

"We have specialists with us, specialists for all kinds of different scenarios, when we are leading, when we are chasing a game, a result. We've always said we want to be a strong set-piece team, so we have specialists for that and we want to be a strong penalty team, we have specialists for that."

England

Thomas Tuchel confirms Alex Scott, Rio Ngumoha, Josh King and one other player will travel to Florida with the squad to make up the numbers for the initial friendlies.

Full quotes to follow...