There are a few decisions for Thomas Tuchel to make before England open their World Cup 2026 campaign against Croatia.
One of those comes at right-back. Tuchel opted to not include Trent Alexander-Arnold in his squad, with Reece James, Ezri Konsa, Tino Livramento and Djed Spence the main options.
The question is, who should be Tuchel’s starting right-back? We used our Comparison Matrix to assess the options.
Who is England’s best right-back?
Defensive contributions
If you were to take shirt numbers as a sign of who will start for England, Konsa is the first-choice right-back. He has been given the No.2 shirt, amid reports that John Stones will partner Marc Guehi at centre-back. However, James’ No.24 mimics his number at Chelsea so is a favourite. And he is also favourite to start at right-back against Croatia, after refinding form and fitness towards the end of the campaign.
The Chelsea right-back averaged 2.2 tackles per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2025-26, the most of any of England’s World Cup options. Spence ranked second with 2.0 tackles per 90, while Tino Livramento managed 1.4. Konsa’s number of 0.7 tackles per 90 looks a lot lower, but he did play solely as a centre-back for Aston Villa. So some of his numbers do need to be taken with a pinch of salt in comparison.
James was the strongest in the air, winning 65.96% of his 2.2 aerial duels contested per 90. Spence also contested 2.2 per 90, but only won 46.94%. Konsa had the second-best success rate, winning 57.14% of his aerial battles. The Aston Villa man was the best on the floor too, winning 72.34% of his ground duels — though it’s worth noting that he only contested 2.8 per 90. James had a healthy success rate of 56.74% from his 6.5 ground duels per 90.
As a centre-back, Konsa has the highest clearance numbers at 3.7 per 90, while James had the lowest at 1.0. Livramento was busy for Newcastle United, averaging 2.7 clearances per 90 to Spence’s 2.3. But James was in a league of his own for interceptions per 90 at 1.6, ahead of Spence (0.8), Konsa (0.7) and then Livramento (0.3).
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Attacking influence
Of course, full-backs are judged more on their attacking outlet and defensive work in the modern era. And James still comes out on top there, keeping up with the old thought of him being the best of both — like having Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kyle Walker combined.
James is England’s most-creative right-back option, averaging 1.3 chances created per 90 in the Premier League. Livramento was in second, averaging 0.7 chances created per 90 and Spence came in at third (0.5). Konsa only averaged 0.2 chances created per 90 but, again, that came down to his positioning at centre-back. James also averaged 0.2 assists per 90, the most of the four right-back options.
But things are a bit more spread out past that. James attempted the most crosses at 5.8 per 90 — more than all the others combined. But Livramento had the best accuracy, completing 25% of his crosses. That may not seem like much, but it’s a pretty decent return given how teams defend against crosses. James’ accuracy of 23.81%, therefore, isn’t too bad either. Livramento achieves his crossing accuracy with the most open-play crosses completed per 90 too, not just relying on set-pieces.
All of the full-backs do look to advance their teams up the pitch, and Konsa has the best return in the Premier League with 17.2 forward passes per 90. Again, there is a slight difference in the roles between centre-backs and right-backs, but it shows that Konsa can perform out wide. James has made the most through-balls at 0.3 per 90. Spence gets himself into the danger areas the most, though, averaging 1.7 touches in the opposition box per 90. Livramento averaged 1.3 per 90, with Konsa and James tied on 0.8.
On-the-ball reliability
England will have a lot of possession at the World Cup this summer, so the full-back needs to be confident on the ball. This is where Konsa’s experiences as a centre-back come into play, as they are heavily involved in possession more than most positions.
Konsa averaged 57.9 open-play passes per 90 in the league last season, completing 55.2 of them. His overall passing accuracy of 95.51% was exceptional, again as a result of the kind of passes made as a centre-back. James did attempt per open-play passes than Konsa with 58.5 per 90, with his 51.9 completed a decent return. The Chelsea man also just about edged Livramento for overall passing accuracy at 89.04% to 89.01%.
Now, James did spend some time in the midfield, which will have helped those passing numbers. It’s also the reason why he averaged 84.6 touches in the Premier League, though Chelsea did generally look to play through the Englishman wherever he was. James also attempted per long passes per 90 than his positional peers, but Konsa had the best accuracy.
Tuchel has good options at right-back, or wing-back if he wants to play in a back three. It’s an enviable position to be in.
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