The numbers behind Thomas Tuchel's first year at England

On 21 March 2025, Thomas Tuchel started his reign as England head coach with a 2-0 victory over Albania, and what followed was a record-breaking 2025 for the Three Lions.

As Tuchel prepares for his first international camp of 2026, the last camp before the FIFA World Cup, we take a look back at the stats and facts behind a memorable 12 months. That includes a perfect 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, Tuchel's impact and the standout stars.

A record-breaking qualifying campaign

With eight wins out of eight, England are one of just five European nations to play as many as eight games in a UEFA World Cup qualification group and win every single game, along with Spain (2010 qualifying), Germany (1982 and 2018 qualifying), Netherlands (2010 qualifying) and Norway (also 2026 qualifying). England are only one of these sides below to keep a clean sheet in every single victory, however, setting a new record.

England ranked in the top five for both shots on target (third most, 63) and expected goals (fifth most, 20.8) in UEFA World Cup qualification, and were fourth for touches in the opposition box (354), showing their attacking intent.

Defensively, across the 54 European nations in qualifying, the Three Lions faced the fewest shots on target (6) and had the lowest xG faced (2.1).

England were top for possession, successful passes, successful passes in the opposition half, passing accuracy, open play sequences with ten or more passes and passes per sequence.

Dan Burn, Elliot Anderson, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa and Reece James all ranked highly per 90 minutes in UEFA World Cup qualifying, with Burn top with 116 per 90.

The Three Lions in 2025

England won nine of their ten matches in all competitions in 2025, the only blemish a 3-1 friendly defeat to Senegal in June. With a 90% win ratio, it’s their best ever in a calendar year when they’ve played ten or more games.

England won all eight of their competitive matches in 2025 (all in UEFA World Cup qualifying) and also won their last three competitive games in 2024 to give them an 11-game competitive game winning run – their best ever streak.

The last ten competitive victories have all been achieved without conceding a single goal – England are only the second European nation in history to win ten in a row without conceding, along with Spain between 2014 and 2016.

Tuchel’s flying start

It’s been a near perfect start for Thomas Tuchel as England manager, winning nine out of his first ten games in charge, including all eight competitive matches. Tuchel is one of only two Three Lions bosses who’ve won nine of their first ten, along with Glenn Hoddle.

Tuchel is the first England manager with nine clean sheets in his first ten matches in charge and only Hoddle can match three goals conceded in his first ten games as manager.

Harry Kane – who scored 44 goals in 45 games under Tuchel when he was Bayern Munich manager – scored nine goals in Tuchel’s first ten games, missing only the 3-0 win over Wales. Only Tommy Lawton has scored more times in a manager’s first ten England games in charge.

Captain Kane

England captain and talisman Harry Kane was once again the main goalscorer during 2025, netting nine goals – the only other players to score more than once this year were Eberechi Eze (3) an Bukayo Saka (2).

This century, there’s only been five occasions a player has netted nine or more goals in a calendar year and four are Kane, in 2019 (12), 2021 (16, a record), 2023 (9) and 2025 (9). The other player to achieve this is in the 21st century is Peter Crouch in 2006 (11).

Pickford between the sticks

Jordan Pickford did not concede a single goal for England in 2025 in eight matches and 720 minutes, keeping out all five shots on target he faced. It’s the most minutes ever played by an England goalkeeper in a single year without conceding, breaking Sam Johnstone’s record from 2021 of 270 minutes without conceding.

Pickford’s eight clean sheets are his joint most in a year for England, also keeping eight in 2021. Only the Gordon Banks has ever kept more in a year for the Three Lions.

Pickford has now gone ten consecutive England appearances without conceding a single goal, stretching back to November 2024. It is the most consecutive appearances by an England goalkeeper without conceding in history.

Pickford has 42 England clean sheets, comfortably in second place in England’s history among goalkeepers. Only Peter Shilton has kept more (58).