Tuchel picks Henderson in first England squad | Newcastle look to end long trophy drought | Will Liverpool trio remain at Anfield?
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Welcome to Back Pages, bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories making the headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Rob Jones. Joining me are Martin Hardy of The Times and the Daily Mail's football editor, Ian Ladyman. Welcome to you both.

Let's start then with the new England manager, Thomas Tuchel, who has indeed selected his first squad. But a lot of the questions today about whether he will sing the national anthem in the early stages of his tenure. Perhaps not surprising, given Lee Carsley's decision not to in his interim spell in charge. Ian, you spent some time with the new England manager today at

The quotes, it is that emotional and it is so powerful that I have to earn my right to sing it. It is not just a given. You cannot just sing it. That's why I decided I will not sing it in my first matches. As I mentioned, there was so much for Rory with Lee Carsley and how he approached it when he was in charge for a short period of time that Thomas Tuchel, you knew, knew this was coming today.

Yeah, absolutely. Clearly been very well briefed today. This is an issue that some people care about. Many people don't. But Tuchel and the FA knew, given the fuss that surrounded Lee Carsley's stance on this matter, that this was a question that would come. And it did come. I was sitting about four feet away from him when it came and he answered it with, with,

the look of a bloke who prepared it. And to be fair, what he said was smart. In many ways, he dropped it back on our toes. He essentially said, it's a great anthem. It's an anthem with meaning. And therefore, if I'm going to sing it, I have to be sure that I'm in the right place, the way the country views me.

almost earned my place, earned the right to sing the anthem, talked about understanding our culture, which of course he will do anyway, he was manager of Chelsea for a couple of seasons of course, and he was asked how do you earn it, what do you do to earn it, he said I've got to win matches, I've got to conduct myself the right way, my team have got to play the right way, and

It was an impressive answer. And what it also does, really, for Thomas is it kicks the can down the road a little bit. And I would imagine that he's thinking that two or three games in, providing he's won those games, which I would imagine he probably will, given the nature of the World Cup qualifying opposition, by the time those first two or three games are out of the way, people will probably have forgotten about it and won't be asking and actually probably won't even be noticing whether he's singing the national anthem or not.

Just to stay with you, Ian, on something you touched on there, but we were talking about Lee Carsley and one of the things I think that was said when England were looking for a new manager was there is so much scrutiny that you need someone who is impressive and hold themselves well in the sort of environment that Thomas Tuchel was in today. And he is that, isn't he? He's an engaging character who says interesting things.

He is, and he also carries the air of a bloke who is absolutely comfortable in the role. And that is so important as an England manager, because even though he only has an 18-month contract, there will be banana skins thrown in his way between now and the World Cup in 18 months' time. Some of those will come naturally. Some of those will probably be almost kind of fabricated and invented naturally.

especially from places like social media, they will come. And he sat there today and looked like a bloke who would handle it. And that actually should be a given, but it isn't always. There have been England managers who maybe didn't carry themselves that way, maybe didn't handle it. Roy Hodgson was probably one of them. Steve McLaren may have been another one of them. Both fine coaches.

But were they kind of big enough personalities to handle the role? Possibly not. Thomas Tuchel absolutely can handle this role. He's been manager of Chelsea, he's been manager of PSG, he's been manager of Bayern Munich. He will handle the scrutiny that comes with this role. And today, his squad was interesting. It wasn't the squad that I would have picked.

I wouldn't have picked Jordan Henderson. I may not have picked Kyle Walker. I would have thought long and hard about Marcus Rashford. We can talk about that, and I'm sure that we will. I'm sure that many people will. But in terms of the way he presents himself as an England manager, the subjects he's prepared to talk about, the depth in which he's willing to go in terms of those subjects, it's not kind of...

It's not kind of straight back answers. You get answers with detail and with analysis and opinion, which is easy to do when you haven't played a game and no one's criticising you yet. Might be different if they lose to Albania next weekend. But at the moment, in terms of the way he's handled himself, difficult to be anything other than mildly impressed.

Just to touch on something that Ian said then, Martin, and it is on the back page of The Times as well, very similar headline, "Tuckle are learned right to sing anthem." There is a discussion, should we care? Do we care? Do you care? No, not at all. As a nation, we've won one major tournament when every game was played at Wembley with a goal that we still can't decide if it was in or not.

On day one of a world-renowned coach's, not day one, but ahead of his first games, we're querying not tactics, style, whether he's solved the problem of who's playing at left-back or whether finally an England team could have a good pivot, which will dictate the way they play.

We're worried about whether the fella's going to sing the national anthem and that possibly might be why we keep falling short so many times. It's not something that interests me. I want to hear what he's got to say and the squad is interesting, as Ian said.

we've gone from DNA and long-term projects with Gareth Southgate to kind of win a bust with Thomas Tuchel. And I think that is reflected by the fact that Jordan Henderson has called back and Kyle Walker has called back. And I'm sure we'll touch on it as well. The first call up for Dan Byrne, he's putting, you know, men, talky players that talk a lot during games to try and bring something different to this squad of young players.

I'm sure Nottingham Forest fans will feel slightly aggrieved that two players who've done so well for them this season aren't included in this squad. You're looking at a coach that's trying to add experience and trying to add something different. It's not a squad that I necessarily agree with, and we'll see in terms of stylistic what he does, but what he has done is create more interesting games against Latvia and Albania than perhaps usually would be the case.

I'll stay with you, Martin, as we talk about one of the big absentees, which is Manchester City's Jack Grealish. The Telegraph goes with Tuchel in warning to Grealish and he says it's not ideal that he's in the newspapers and out there in public. He was photographed out in Wearside recently, put a bit of money behind the bar, had a couple of drinks. He also said in the same press conference, you can be picked on responsibility, leadership and personality. So I guess the warning...

This is a difficult one to me, Martin, because if he's not in Manchester City the next day, does Jack Grealish not have the right to sort of spend his Saturday or Sunday night however he pleases to, as long as he's not turning up in an unfit state for training?

The way I would answer that, and I've defended Jack Grealish in the past, I've just googled Jack's age and I'd be amazed if all of your viewers knew that he's now 29. This is getting towards the final chance for him in his career. This season hasn't happened. Last season there was injuries. The travel season he did very well and perhaps got carried away with that. And by his own admission, the season before that, he didn't do well in his first spell at Man City.

Next season, he's going to be 30. He needs to be not in the spotlight and a bar and weir side when his form is not good and when he's injured.

People around you at that point have to say, look, you're going to have to take yourself out of the public eye. You're not doing anything greatly wrong. However, there's an air of professionalism that people want to see at times like this. You need to be working harder to get fit, staying out of the public eye. But I guess with Jack Grealish, there is this character that people love and he seems to need that love at the same time. The interesting comments from Thomas Tuchel earlier

He does criticise the media for taking pictures of Jack, which these days is impossible to escape from. But even he himself says it's not ideal that Jack's in the public out there. I think Jack Grealish needs to knuckle down, be the most determined in his career. Nobody's quite sure where he goes from here because it doesn't appear that he has a great future at Manchester City. Pep's not playing him. Thomas Tuchel's talking about him.

Not necessarily in the past tense, but not far off. And he has great competition in the position that he plays for England. I think it's time that Jack knuckled down and kind of showed everybody that he can still be a player at the top level. And at the minute, he's not doing that. Just to clarify, Martin, that wasn't a slight on the quality of the bars in Wearside. No, not at all. Good man. From all accounts, he's very generous and good company and...

But it's his football that we want to be talking about. Absolutely. Let's, I guess, talk about the other side of the coin then, Ian, because Marcus Rashford is back in the squad. And Thomas Tuchel, again, interesting quotes. I had the feeling that we need to reward him now. We need to feel him. He needs to be close to me, that he does not fall back into old routines as if the message is you've done the right thing by going to Aston Villa, by playing, by getting a new environment. Don't ruin it. Keep going.

Yeah, Tuchel adopted almost a pastoral or a parental stance when he talked about Rashford. It was quite interesting, the quote that you mentioned there. Firstly, when he said he got to make sure he doesn't go back into previous habits, he clarified that when he sat down and talked to us earlier.

made it clear that he was talking about football, nothing away from the field. He was talking about football, he was talking about work on the pitch, he was talking about pressing the ball, he was talking about work without the ball. But the point he made was that he thought that at the moment, even though Rashford's impact at Villa has been... It's been...

productive without being spectacular and Tuchel almost acknowledged that but almost felt like he wanted to seize this moment with Rashford and thought right he's had a month of good work six weeks of good work now's the time to get him back in and almost reinforce the positivity that he's clearly been feeling under Unai Emery at Aston Villa so he wasn't saying

Marcus is back. He's the player that he was. He's the person that he was. He's going to win us the World Cup. He was saying, there's a chink of light there now with Marcus and I want to get him in and I want to make him feel good and I want to talk to him and spend time with him and remind him what it's like to spend time in an England camp with players in an environment where he has thrived in the past up until the last couple of years and make good that small amount of progress that he's made at

at Villa. And I thought, I think that's a very, very smart piece of management. Quite happy to sit here and query why on earth he's selected a player in Jordan Anderson who will be 36 by the time the next World Cup kicks off. We can talk about that, but to be fair, I think that's very smart management with Marcus Frasch. Very, very smart indeed. Just a brief over...

Look, to finish then, Martin, about maybe the make-up of the squad, just there Ian mentioning how old Jordan Henderson will be, but he talks today, Thomas Tuchel, about six camps, 60 days with his players, that Gareth Southgate was often reflective of St George's Park and the pathway and the project. Thomas Tuchel is here to win, and if he thinks that a 36-year-old Jordan Henderson or Kyle Walker is going to help him do so, they'll be in the squad in the next big tournament that England play in America, Canada and Mexico next summer.

I'm not sure that is the case. I think they are there right now to set a standard, to say this is how we do it. He said that when he spoke about Jordan Henderson. This is a player whose standards have remained very, very high, a natural leader. So right from the start, there will be a tone of professionalism. Same with Kyle Walker. You're talking about people who have captained Manchester City and captained Liverpool. So he's put leaders in.

In a running sense, these may be your pacemakers in that they'll start, but they won't finish and they won't reach the World Cup. But they'll set a tone that Thomas Tuchel expects the rest of the squad to adhere to. Let's get to Martin's piece then. Newcastle's 70 years of hurt, as told by those who shared the heartache as Newcastle looked to win the Carabao Cup on Sunday against Liverpool. A city holds its breath, Martin. Yeah, it does. There are flags appearing across the bridges.

um everywhere you look black and white buttons coming out of shops and to try and reflect this pain that's been going on for decades and decades i went and spoke to players who've been involved um in the cup finals that newcastle have played since they won in 1955 against manchester city their last domestic major competition which seems incredible that it's been so long

I spoke to Malcolm MacDonald, who went back to a place where he'd been on his first days in Newcastle play, which was down at Tynemouth, where there used to be an open-air pool, and he judged a missed Tyne and Wear competition on a diving board, and the pool was beautiful and everything was great. And here we are 54 years later, Malcolm's 75, still very sharp.

The pool is closed down. It's hard not to reflect on the fact that so much has happened in these 54 years and Newcastle have still not managed to put a bit of silverware in the trophy cabinet. From Al McDonald, Steve Watson talking about having a hand on the Premier League title in 1996.

Rob Lee, the last Newcastle player to score a goal at Wembley in 2000 in a semi-final. And he said, Newcastle fans still come up to him and say how much they loved that moment. And he says, I have to remind them it was a semi-final and we lost. So it's this continual theme of,

not getting over the line. This is going to be an incredibly difficult game. In 1999, Newcastle met the treble-winning Manchester United team. In 1998, it was the double-winning Arsenal team. And this time they've got Liverpool, who look set to win the Premier League title. I think it's given everybody in the North East a little bit of hope that Liverpool had such a hard game against PSG on Tuesday night and lost, and they have injuries.

and that may offset a little bit the absence of Lewis Hall and Anthony Gordon. So I think the heart is seeing Newcastle have a chance here. The head is saying in the last 17 games between these two teams, Liverpool have won 12, another five have been drawn, and it's 10 years since Newcastle have beaten Liverpool. But I'm sure we'll come to him

If you have Alexander Izak in your team, you have a chance and he's got a really good record against Liverpool. He seems to enjoy these really big games. He was unplayable against Arsenal in the second semi-final and the first semi-final, to be fair.

he seems to have returned to full fitness and then rafa benitez in the times has kind of tactically uh picked the game through and said the key area could be newcastle's midfield where by sandra tanali bruno garmeris and uh joe linton are a really powerful trio but newcastle and dogs make no bones about that but the end of the end of the conversation with matt mcdonald was

what would you do if Newcastle do return to Tyneside, which is now his home, on Sunday night with the trophy? And he said, I can die happy. Oh, that's amazing. That is lovely. Let's talk about the big match-up then, Ian. Martin mentioned Alexander Isak there, him against the Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. He's featured on the back page of the Mail. Van Dijk plea for calm as his contract runs down.

The closer we get to the end of the season, do you feel it's more or less likely that Van Dijk and Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold too will be Liverpool players come the start of next season? Blimey, there's a question. I'm pretty sure that Trent will go, as difficult that is to say for anyone who cares about English football. Odds are against, but...

I thought, I think if they were signing contracts, I'd like to be hearing some positive noises at the moment. All we hear at the moment is prevarication, certainly from Van Dijk. Van Dijk seems to talk a lot about it without really ever saying very much.

Salah went through that point two, three months ago where he seemed to speak after two, three games and seemed to be pointedly putting the ball in Liverpool's court. He's quietened down. I mean, look, from a journalist's point of view, it's difficult because, and Martin will acknowledge this,

you're duty bound to keep asking these guys the same questions, knowing that they're not going to give you an answer. And you know that you're going to continue asking Arne Slott about it, knowing that he's not going to give you an answer. So what Liverpool can hope for and must hope for in a game like Sunday is that that type of stuff is swept to one side because it cannot be allowed to affect performances. I noticed that Salah was in tears after the Champions League exit to PSG earlier in the week.

You don't want to see his mind clouded ahead of a game like this. I can't believe for one minute that it will be. He's had a fantastic season. One of his best, if not the best, in a Liverpool shirt. Van Dijk has been imperious on the whole. Trent Alexander-Arnold won't play. Of course, he's injured. I think what is the key to this game is actually how Newcastle play.

I think if Newcastle turn up, which they didn't two years ago, particularly when they lost to Manchester United in this final, Newcastle turn up, they've got a real chance, despite the fact they haven't got Hall, despite the fact they haven't got Gordon and Bottman, they have got a chance against a team that has just done 120 minutes in the Champions League,

And lost. And they did look a tied team at the end of that. I was at the game at Anfield a couple of weeks ago when Liverpool beat Newcastle in the league. I thought Newcastle had half an hour in that game and they played very well and could have troubled Liverpool. If they can bring a little bit of that to Wembley, they have got

a real chance but it's a matter of whether they do because two years ago they didn't and as martin alluded to very eloquently earlier um and has written about in the times tomorrow the

They don't play well in big finals, big domestic finals, historically. That needs to change. If it does, they've really got a punchy chance of winning this final. Let's just have a word as well before we go, Martin, about some of the quotes from Bruno Fernandes, the Manchester United captain, across the mirror, the express, that some of the comments from Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Jim Ratcliffe earlier this week, a lot of furore about a potential new stadium, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe laying a lot of things bare afterwards.

And particularly the interview with Gary Neville, Martin, I thought there were a lot of times where you wondered what path Sir Jim Ratcliffe was going down and a lot of it I don't think will have encouraged fans, but also clearly hasn't encouraged parts of the Manchester United dressing room. To be fair, Jim Ratcliffe and Amram seem to have stepped back in time in terms of it's fair game to criticise everybody that they feel like doing. So that's not really the way it's done anymore. And in fairness,

footballers are from a different generation now and react particularly they don't act well to criticism in private never mind in public so it seemed a strange tactic to go around calling out these players by the person that has come in in the last 12 months and

has done not a particularly great job. If anybody needs criticism at the minute, it's the fact that Jim Ratcliffe has oversaw 12 months. That's actually taken Manchester United to a worse place than they were when he came in. Criticising your own players in public is a huge gamble. I'm not necessarily sure it's the right tack to take. And, you know, Bruno Fernandes' form and goals remains fairly consistent. But for him to come out and say they didn't,

They didn't enjoy hearing that. It's quite a thing, given that he's talking about a part owner of the football club that he plays for. Let's just finish then. You've sort of both alluded to it, but some predictions for Sunday, Ian? 2-1 Newcastle. 2-1 Newcastle. Martin?

Yeah, I'll go along with Ian. I can't possibly not pick the North East Club today. A tight game, an exciting game. Who knows, could be extra time, could be penalties, we'll see. But Newcastle have got a chance, as Ian very well said there. They've got a chance if they can get all the key players on their game, then we could have a good final.