Tuchel stresses importance of united England team after subs and starters sweep Serbia

Thomas Tuchel reiterated his desire to build England into a united squad, rather than focusing on starting lineups, after Thursday's 2-0 win over Serbia.

The Three Lions boss spent much of his pre-match press conference discussing his depth of talent to call upon, having recalled Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham for the November internationals.

Tuchel opted to leave that pair on the bench against Serbia, who provided little threat in a first half that saw Bukayo Saka volley a delightful finish for the 28th-minute opener.

The German eventually afforded Foden and Bellingham their chances just past the hour, with the Manchester City star teeing up fellow substitute Eberechi Eze to score in the final minute of normal time.

And Tuchel's focus remains on knitting a well-equipped squad together, stressing the importance of all the players featuring, whether from the first minute or off the bench.

"This is not about building a starting XI, it's about building a team," Tuchel told ITV. "They're all big players in their club, they're used to playing, they're disappointed but buy into this idea of building a team.

"We're a strong group who can put the ego aside and give the coach a headache in the next match, that is the only way. 

"Everyone is treating everyone with respect. The ones on the pitch know they can rely on everyone who comes from the bench to finish the game. We could see the impact today."

Tuchel revealed in the build-up to the Serbia clash that he has no intention of playing both Foden and Bellingham in the starting XI behind talisman and captain Harry Kane.

He stayed true to that assertion, removing Kane for Foden to take a false-nine position from which he created a game-leading three chances and managed two shots, despite his 64th-minute introduction.

A cute dink should have seen Eze score earlier on, only to be denied by the crossbar, but another smart offload from Foden would not be passed up by the Arsenal forward in the dying seconds.

That superior quality from the bench held off any late Serbia advances, as Tuchel's side made it seven wins from as many qualifiers, while scoring 20 goals and not conceding once.

"We wanted to have quality and impact and new energy from the bench, which we got. We created chances, half-chances and scored," Tuchel added.

"We had some moments to defend until the very end, to defend our clean sheet. A special compliment to Jordan [Pickford] and the back four today.

"In the second half, the pressing was not always right and we let Serbia escape. There was some intense output we had to give to get the clean sheet and win the game.

"It was a difficult match, a complicated match, we had to adapt and be flexible. Maybe throughout the match, we lacked a little bit of precision with the last pass; otherwise, we could have created more and scored earlier to be a bit calmer.

"But I liked it, it stayed intense and a tight match. We could see their quality. I'm happy about this test. It was a test. The attitude was right."