England's Striker Shortage Is So Severe Tuchel Is Plotting Bellingham as an Emergency No 9

Thomas Tuchel did not need to improvise. Jude Bellingham, England's player of the year and a World Cup Bronze Boot winner, is now also the head coach's answer to a question nobody wants to ask out loud: what happens when Harry Kane can no longer play.

Kane answered that question emphatically himself on Tuesday, scoring a late winner in a 2-0 win against Czechia in Prague to move to 87 goals in 123 international appearances, extending a scoring record few in the game can rival according to the Guardian. But the manner in which that game finished, with Bellingham wearing the captain's armband and operating as an emergency centre-forward, has exposed a problem Tuchel can no longer avoid discussing.

Tuchel's No 9 dilemma: why Bellingham is even in the conversation

Tuchel was direct about what he had seen. Asked about England's lack of alternatives to Kane, he pointed straight to his most important midfielder.

"I like him as a [No] 9," Tuchel said. "Then he can contribute to both sides and overloads the sides and doesn't affect so much of the balance. We found a bit of a new role for him in the last match, as a central [No] 10, so he can go to both sides and it is more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3 to have Harry and Jude closer together and to give them a chance to overload both sides." the Guardian reports

A tactical tweak dressed up as a plan

Tuchel framed this as evolution rather than emergency, describing a shift towards a 4-2-3-1 that lets Kane and Bellingham operate closer together. He also insisted Bellingham's appetite for goals makes the switch natural.

"Jude in general should always be able to go through the last line and be able to end up in the box," Tuchel said. "He is a natural goalscorer and has the hunger to be on the scoreboard. He wants to have the decisive action so it makes not a huge difference if he plays as a [No] 9 or a [No] 10." the Guardian reports

That is a generous reading of events. Bellingham is arguably the finest all-round midfielder England have produced in a generation, but a manager reaching for his No 8 or No 10 as a credible centre-forward solution is not innovation for its own sake. It is what happens when the alternatives on the bench do not convince.

The strikers who weren't picked — and why that matters

The names missing from this squad tell their own story. Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney, both in form domestically, were overlooked entirely for this camp, as the Guardian noted. That leaves Tuchel with a thin cast of recognised forwards behind Kane.

Calvert-Lewin's modest return

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who came on for Kane during the defeat by Spain, is 29 and has scored just four goals in 13 caps for England. He remains the most experienced deputy available, which is itself a telling indictment of the depth chart.

Delap uncapped, Watkins and Toney overlooked

Liam Delap, the 23-year-old Nottingham Forest forward, has yet to earn a senior call-up at all. Put plainly, Tuchel's realistic centre-forward options beyond Kane currently amount to:

• Dominic Calvert-Lewin, four goals in 13 caps
• Liam Delap, uncapped at senior level
• Jude Bellingham, a midfielder being tried as an emergency No 9

Watkins and Toney's absence from the squad makes the Bellingham experiment harder to read as anything other than a reflection of how little confidence Tuchel currently has in his specialist strikers.

Kane's record-breaking night in Prague and the clock ticking on his career

None of this is a problem for right now. Kane remains comfortably England's first-choice forward, and Tuchel was unequivocal about his longevity.

Closing in on a century of goals

Tuchel backed the 33-year-old to last another decade at the highest level and tipped him to reach a century of international goals soon, according to the Guardian. At 87 goals from 123 caps, Kane needs just 13 more to become the first England player to reach that milestone, a target that now feels like a matter of when rather than if.

"You will not get another Harry Kane"

Tuchel was equally clear that there is no like-for-like successor waiting in the wings, and that whoever eventually replaces Kane will need an entirely different profile.

"You will not get another Harry Kane, first of all," Tuchel said. "We look for different solutions. We finished the game with Jude as a No 9. There will be someone else but it will not be Harry or a copy of Harry. We will find a solution when it comes to it but maybe not me. It might be another 10 years." the Guardian reports

What this means for England's World Cup planning

This story arrives amid heightened scrutiny of Tuchel's squad selections. England suffered a home defeat to world champions Spain on Saturday, a result talkSPORT described as England's first home loss to Spain in the fixture's recent history, with only three players from that defeat retained as regulars in the squad that travelled to Prague talkSPORT reports. Notably, talkSPORT's own coverage of the sides' history recalls the inverse statistic from 2018, when England ended a 15-year unbeaten run Spain had on home soil, underlining how sharply momentum between the two nations has swung talkSPORT reports.

Bellingham's stature makes the gamble riskier

Bellingham's growing influence only sharpens the stakes of using him as an emergency striker. He was named England Men's Player of the Year for a second consecutive season, becoming only the fifth player in history to win the award in back-to-back years, joining a list that includes Wayne Rooney, Bukayo Saka, Frank Lampard and Kane himself talkSPORT reports. He also recently collected a World Cup Bronze Boot, an award he admitted he did not know existed until it arrived more than two months after the tournament finished talkSPORT reports.

Deploying a player of that significance as makeshift centre-forward cover is a gamble with Bellingham's own effectiveness in his natural role, not just a tactical footnote. For fans and bettors assessing England's goal markets and tournament outright odds, the subtext is clear: there is no proven plan B at striker, and the manager's most creative solution currently involves repurposing his best midfielder rather than trusting a recognised No 9 off the bench.

What happens next

Kane shows no signs of slowing down, and his march towards a century of England goals will remain the dominant storyline through the rest of this Nations League campaign and beyond. But Tuchel's comments confirm that succession planning at centre-forward is unresolved, with Calvert-Lewin unconvincing, Delap unproven at senior level, and Watkins and Toney currently frozen out altogether.

Expect continued scrutiny of these selection calls, particularly if Kane picks up even a minor injury before a major tournament. Until England settle on a credible alternative, Bellingham's name will keep surfacing in forward-line conversations, not because it is the ideal solution, but because, for now, it may be the only one Tuchel trusts.