TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT! Tuchel must prove he's worth the money and make three England changes for World Cup showdown vs Mexico

It is to absolutely no-one’s surprise that the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB, German

Football

Association) has not turned to an English manager to succeed Julian Nagelsmann.

With Jurgen Klopp happy to step up,

the DFB is in a good position, but anyhow, there is never likely to be a time when they would consider employing a foreign coach for their national team.

Not that there would be many outstanding English candidates, in any case, although if the DFB had an ironic sense of humour, they might have thought about approaching

Frank Lampard

.

That the manager of the German national team has to be German seems non-negotiable.

That is not a policy followed by the Football Association, of course. They wanted the best out there, regardless of nationality, and came up with Thomas Tuchel, in the same way they came up with Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

A bit like Eriksson - but certainly not like Capello - Tuchel comes across as something of an Anglophile. But he is not doing this out of love for the country. There is no duty involved, as appeared to be the case with

Gareth Southgate

, whose patriotism seemed to grow the longer he was in the job.

Tuchel clearly saw it as a good thing for his CV and, possibly, as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

He is also being paid top dollar. There is a suggestion Carlo Ancelotti might earn a bit more with

Brazil

and that Didier Deschamps, with

France

, and

Mauricio Pochettino

, with the

United States

, are on similar terms.

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But in the international managerial earnings table, Tuchel is right up there with a salary believed to be in excess of £5million.

And this is when he will earn the big bucks. The Azteca Stadium is where he will earn the big bucks.

The narrative has taken different routes over the past few days. To start with, a trip to

Mexico

City to face Mexico was being billed as some sort of mission impossible, the home country’s record at the famed stadium a thing of wonder.

But then everyone was queuing up to point out that Mexico’s all-time record in the Azteca - 95 wins in 145 games - has been padded out by victories against some distinctly average opponents.

There have been eight wins against Honduras, eight against Jamaica, seven against El Salvador, six against

Panama

So, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. It is a very tough challenge - but not a Herculean one.

It does, though, demand Tuchel shows he is worth the expense.

Because there is no doubt England have a big disadvantage to overcome. Mexico City’s altitude - well over 7,000 feet above sea level will play a huge part in proceedings.

England will have all the medical and physical help they need but there is only a small amount that can do. And the fact is that Tuchel is going to have to tailor his natural game-plan to account for the conditions.

He is going to have to curb

Jude Bellingham

’s marauding instincts because, otherwise, England’s marauding main man will burn himself out in the rarefied air.

Tuchel is going to have to tell his captain to reduce his workload, to not get involved as much as usual, because he needs

Harry Kane

to go the distance.

Tuchel is going to have to tell

Jordan

Pickford to put his foot on the ball, tell him to calm down. Energy disappears pretty quickly at that altitude.

The irony is that Southgate was always accused of playing with the handbrake on, of being too conservative.

Well, conservative will be good in the Azteca. Temperatures will be kind - around 17 degrees with a good chance of rain - but England players will be gasping for breath if they go too hard, too early.

And that is where Tuchel comes in.

An easy qualifying campaign and some mixed stuff in the early stages at this World Cup means we don’t know if Tuchel is worth the big bucks.

But in Mexico City, we are about to find out.

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