England head coach Thomas Tuchel oversaw his first training session today after welcoming his squad to St. George’s Park at the start of the week. The new boss is preparing his players for World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia.

An open training session allowed the media to get a glimpse of Tuchel and his staff in action. Here are five things Express Sport took away from the session…

Three stars promoted

Tuchel’s squad of 26 players were joined by three stars from the Under-21s. It is common practice for the most senior age group to provide additional numbers to the England squad for training when needed and it presents an opportunity for young players to impress.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Adam Wharton and Liam Delap, who were called up by the U21s for the international break, all joined in on the session. Wharton and Delap, in particular, may feel they deserved to be in Tuchel’s first squad.

Cole Palmer injury update

The Football Association have confirmed that Cole Palmer remains with Chelsea. The midfielder suffered a muscular injury during training last week and missed the Blues’ 1-0 defeat against Arsenal on Sunday. He is undergoing further assessment with Chelsea’s medical team and it seems unlikely that he will play in England’s two fixtures.

Morgan Gibbs-White has been called up having initially missed out on a place in the squad. The Nottingham Forest star revealed that he received a call from Tuchel on Sunday afternoon.

New drills with strict punishment

Players were treated to new drills that were not seen during the Gareth Southgate era. The first involved players splitting into groups, standing in a circle holding hands, and attempting to keep the ball in the air while moving from one area of the pitch to another.

The initial attempt saw players limited to only three touches before the limit was reduced to just one touch. The losing teams were forced to perform press-ups but seemed to take the strict punishment well.

Relaxed vibe

Tuchel will have been well aware that the cameras were on him for much of the session. However, it was notable that he seemed naturally relaxed and at ease among the squad. He gave a short talk at the start of the session before sharing a joke with a couple of players as they broke away for a short jog.

For the rest of the session, Tuchel spoke very little and merely observed, breaking away on a couple of occasions to speak with assistant Anthony Barry. Performance coach Nicolas Mayer did most of the talking.

Players seemed happy and were clearly keen to reunite with their international team-mates. This was their first gathering as a squad since November.

Possible starting 11 hint

It seems unlikely that Tuchel would have given away his starting 11 for Friday’s clash with Albania but it was notable that 11 players seemed to be wearing bibs. There were 10 in orange: Jarrod Bowen, Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa, Jarell Quansah, Marcus Rashford, Dan Burn, Tino Livramento, Harwood-Bellis, Morgan Rogers and Jude Bellingham. Wharton wore yellow.

The 10 players orange, with the addition of a goalkeeper, roughly make up a coherent team, but it was perhaps for a training match later on.