Thomas Tuchel raids Premier League club to add ex-Man Utd coach to England staff

England boss Thomas Tuchel is set to add Brentford coach Justin Cochrane to his backroom staff.

Tuchel officially took charge of the Three Lions at the start of the year, with his first match coming next month against Albania. The German has been tasked with leading England to World Cup glory in the 2026 tournament.

He visited St George's Park for the first time on January 6 and is already speaking with players who he may call-up. The Three Lions will face Albania, Latvia, Andorra and Serbia in the qualifiers.

Ahead of his first outing as England boss, Tuchel is now looking to boost his backroom team. He already has assistant Anthony Barry, performance coach Nicolas Mayer, goalkeeper coach Henrique Hilario and analyst James Melbourne in place.

According to The Telegraph, highly-rated Cochrane has now become his top target. The FA are said to be in 'advanced talks' with Brentford over the 43-year-old linking up with Tuchel's staff.

Cochrane is currently working as head of coaching for the Bees. He has previously had stints at Tottenham and in Manchester United's academy, while he has also had spells in charge of England's under-16 and under-17 teams.

Tuchel's team required a boost with Ashley Cole returning to the Under-21s with Lee Carsley. Tuchel and the FA's technical director John McDermott have opted to target Cochrane, with negotiations thought to be close to completion.

McDermott has previous experience working with Cochrane at Spurs during his time as the club's Head of Academy and Player Development. It is expected that Cochrane will work part-time with England, while retaining his day-to-day job at Brentford.

Thanks to his time with the FA's junior teams, he already has experience of working with the likes of United’s Kobbie Mainoo and Chelsea ’s Noni Madueke. It is expected he will in place when Tuchel brings his squad together for the first time next month.

The German is expecting a tough qualification campaign, with Albania first up at Wembley on 21 March. Tuchel has insisted that reaching the World Cup will not be easy despite the lack of another top level side in their group.

“It’s a difficult group,” said Tuchel. “Serbia and Albania have some good individual players, top coaches and some very famous ex-players, so it will be very tough. We’ll have to be very respectful of that.

“We have to be at our top level to make it to the World Cup – it’s the most important task at the moment to not get distracted. We also don’t want to get distracted by the role of favourites.”

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