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With six wins out of six, an unbreached defense and tournament placement secured with two group games to spare, England manager Thomas Tuchel can argue he has got all of his big qualifying decisions correct.

Nevertheless, in the build-up to Thursday's domestic match against Serbia, he sparked a debate when he said that three of the country's best players - Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Harry Kane - struggle to perform in the equivalent formation.

"At the moment, if we stick with the system, they won't fit together.

"They might but not with current tactics, not for the balance that we developed and not in this formation that also includes wingers who are highly specialized in their positions. We play at the moment with specific numbered positions."

From guaranteed positions to competitive roles

England's creative talents have been deployed on the flanks for England in the past, but Tuchel's selections indicate that the Manchester United forward and Bukayo Saka are his primary selections on the wing positions respectively.

So can Bellingham, Foden and Kane coexist in the lineup?

Former Three Lions boss certainly thought so.

Bellingham, Foden and Kane were selected for each England's seven matches at last summer's tournament in Germany, where the national squad lost to Spain in the final.

In the 16 matches the three have featured alongside each other, England have won 10, shared points three times and been defeated three times, scoring 36 times and conceding 14.

Strategic view: Versatile Foden offers solutions

Tuchel has played a 4-2-3-1 system that alters structure when England attack.

The Aston Villa player has been the key creative force because of his strong ball-carrying, strike quality and ability to attack the box when the forward retreats.

Tuchel has discussed favoring specialist wingers. The Arsenal and Newcastle stars play out wide weekly and can maintain possession effectively, take their full-back on, and enter the area to finish.

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

What solutions exist for the trio?

Foden and Bellingham would be vying against Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze for the attacking midfield position, with Kane probably featuring up front.

Foden could feature as the number nine, which potentially could allow both Bellingham and Foden to feature instead of Kane.

There is one way all three could play in this system and Tuchel alluded to it this week.

"With his club, he plays almost like a central or attacking midfielder, so perhaps in coming months we view him as a central midfielder," he said.

Foden has been utilized as a flexible midfielder 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 permit Bellingham to feature as the attacking midfielder and Kane as the striker.

No matter whether Tuchel opts to structure the side like this at the World Cup, what appears positive is his preparedness to omit established stars in the pursuit of tactical equilibrium.