Jude Bellingham secures England's World Cup starting No. 10 position for the opening match.

"Putting Bellingham in the starting lineup was an easy decision. The hard part was leaving Morgan Rogers out."

When Tuchel uttered this sentence into the microphone, the suspense over England's No. 10 role for their World Cup opener was settled. On June 17 in Dallas against Croatia, the starting lineup would inevitably feature that Real Madrid midfielder.

"An easy decision."

Just days earlier, the German had been using the rhetoric of "no one is guaranteed to start," putting Bellingham on the hot seat of public opinion. His change of heart was quicker than flipping a page, but everyone in the locker room understood the game.

When a new manager takes over, targeting the team's most expensive star to establish authority is a standard move for head coaches. Tuchel needed absolute obedience to the tactical board's high-pressure gears. Rogers was the enforcer pushed to the forefront.

Using a newcomer's rise to squeeze the core player's space—a test of compliance. He tried to threaten tactical marginalization to force a compliant No. 10.

The plan sounded good on paper. But the 3-0 friendly win over Costa Rica shattered the script.

Bellingham didn't sulk on the pitch or go to the sideline to demand answers from the coach. He delivered a Maradona-esque dribble and handled the dirty work of defensive recovery without complaint. His connection with Harry Kane gave the attack a backbone.

Once the running and pressing on the field materialized, the manager's psychological warfare became worthless. Bellingham, with his full-pitch coverage, firmly seized control of the No. 10 role.

Now Tuchel's shift to saying "leaving out Rogers is a difficult decision" sounds more like a tactical fig leaf. If the friendly had been a struggle, the player thrown under the bus at the press conference would definitely have been the "easy decision."

The performance spoke for itself. The new manager's favored replacement had to step aside. Rogers was benched.

With Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon occupying the wings, England's attacking framework was locked in.

The starting lineup was set, but the behind-the-scenes battle was far from over. In the friendly, Tuchel's authority was forcibly corrected by the player's individual ability.

On the grass in Dallas on June 17, the No. 10 jersey was on Bellingham. Whether the German's tactical board can contain this Real Madrid midfielder, who voted with his feet, will only be known when the opening whistle blows.