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With six wins out of six, an unbreached defense and a World Cup spot confirmed with matches remaining, national team coach Thomas Tuchel can argue he has got all of his big qualifying decisions correct.

Yet, in the lead-up to Thursday's Wembley encounter against Serbia, he raised questions when he claimed that three of the country's best players - Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Harry Kane - struggle to perform in the identical lineup.

"Currently, if we keep the structure, they are unable to feature.

"They can but not in the structure, not preserving harmony that we established and not in this formation that incorporates wingers who are essentially experts in their positions. We currently utilize with a six, eight, a 10 and a nine."

From certain starters to fighting for spots

The Manchester City and Real Madrid stars have been utilized out wide for England in the past, but Tuchel's selections suggest that the Manchester United forward and Bukayo Saka are his preferred options on the left and right flank respectively.

The question remains whether Bellingham, Foden and Kane coexist in the lineup?

Former Three Lions boss apparently believed they could.

Bellingham, Foden and Kane were selected for each England's seven games at Euro 2024 in Germany, where the national squad fell to the Spanish in the final.

In the 16 games the stars have performed together, England have triumphed 10 times, shared points three times and lost three, scoring 36 times and conceding 14.

Tactical insight: Foden's flexibility provides alternatives

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, shooting ability and ability to attack the box when the forward retreats.

Tuchel has mentioned preferring dedicated wide players. The wide attackers play out wide weekly and can maintain possession effectively, take their full-back on, and arrive in the box to score.

Behind this front four, Tuchel employs a double pivot consisting of one defensively strict player and one with more license to join the forward movement.

So how could Tuchel use these three players?

Foden and Bellingham would be competing with Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze for the creative hub, with Kane probably featuring up front.

Foden could play as the main forward, which theoretically could allow both Bellingham and Foden to feature instead of Kane.

There is one way all three could feature together and Tuchel hinted at it this week.

"With his club, he plays almost like a box-to-box or creative role, so perhaps in coming months we consider him as a number eight," he said.

Foden has been deployed in a versatile central position this season.

That has enabled him to operate from deeper areas and could position him as the central midfielder, next to a more defensive number six.

This would then enable Bellingham to operate as the number 10 and Kane as the nine.

Regardless of if Tuchel opts to structure the side like this at the international competition, what bodes well is his willingness to leave big players out in the pursuit of tactical equilibrium.