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Having secured six victories out of six, an unbreached defense and tournament placement secured with two group games to spare, national team coach Thomas Tuchel can argue he has chosen wisely throughout qualification.

Yet, in the build-up to Thursday's home game against Serbia, he initiated discussion when he stated that three of the nation's top talents - Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Harry Kane - struggle to perform in the identical lineup.

"Currently, if we keep the structure, they won't fit together.

"They might but not in the structure, not maintaining equilibrium that we established and not within the framework that also includes wingers who are highly specialized in their positions. We play at the moment with a six, eight, a 10 and a nine."

From guaranteed positions to competitive roles

The Manchester City and Real Madrid stars have been used in wide positions for England in the past, but his team selections indicate that the Manchester United forward and Bukayo Saka are his primary selections on the wide areas respectively.

So can Bellingham, Foden and Kane play together?

The previous England manager certainly thought so.

Bellingham, Foden and Kane featured in every England's seven fixtures at Euro 2024 in Germany, where the national squad fell to the Spanish in the final.

In the 16 fixtures the three have featured together, England have secured 10 victories, shared points three times and suffered three losses, scoring 36 times and allowing 14 goals.

Strategic view: Versatile Foden offers solutions

Tuchel has utilized a 4-2-3-1 formation that alters structure when England attack.

The Aston Villa player has been the primary attacking midfielder because of his impressive ball progression, strike quality and capacity to penetrate the area when the forward retreats.

Tuchel has spoken about preferring natural flank operators. The Arsenal and Newcastle stars regularly feature on the wings and can maintain possession effectively, engage in one-on-one situations, and enter the area to finish.

Supporting the attacking quartet, Tuchel employs a double pivot consisting of one defensively strict player and a partner with attacking liberty to contribute to the attack.

So how could Tuchel use these three players?

Foden and Bellingham would be competing with other creative midfielders for the creative hub, with Kane likely to start up front.

Foden could play as the central striker, which theoretically could allow both Bellingham and Foden to play at Kane's expense.

There is a potential solution all three could play in this system and Tuchel alluded to it this week.

"For Man City, he functions as a number eight or 10, so potentially in future we consider him as a box-to-box player," he said.

Foden has been utilized as a flexible midfielder this season.

That has allowed him to take responsibility deeper and could categorize him as the number eight, alongside a holding midfielder.

This would then allow Bellingham to play as the attacking midfielder and Kane as the nine.

Irrespective of whether Tuchel opts to structure the side like this at the global tournament, what appears positive is his preparedness to omit established stars in the interest of team harmony.