England boss Thomas Tuchel has opened up on his decision to bench Jude Bellingham for Thursday night's 2-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Serbia at Wembley.
The Three Lions continued their 100 per cent winning record, with Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze scoring in either half to secure all three points.
Before the match, however, it was Bellingham who was dominating the headlines.
The Real Madrid star hasn't played for his country since June's defeat to Senegal and, on Thursday, Morgan Rogers was picked ahead of him.
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Bellingham eventually came off the bench to help England on their way to victory.
Unlike under Gareth Southgate, however, he doesn't appear to have undroppable status within the side any more.
And Tuchel has now revealed that Rogers was picked because the Aston Villa star is more familiar with his tactics.
“It is normal. They compete at the moment for the same position and they’re still friends,” he said.
England boss Thomas Tuchel has opened up on his decision to bench Jude Bellingham for Thursday night's 2-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Serbia at Wembley
|REUTERS/PA
England's top five highest goalscorers | PA“They are very respectful with each other and like each other.
“Morgan deserved to start because he had three fantastic performances, and second of all, we didn’t know what was coming, if our plan was right with the high press.”
He continued: “It would be unfair for Jude to try figure everything out because we changed our way of pressing in the last two camps... Declan [Rice], Morgan and Harry [Kane] did it already in three-four matches together.”
Last night marked another positive step in the right direction under Tuchel.
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England went with Morgan Rogers over Jude Bellingham for Thursday night's win over Serbia
|PA
The Three Lions went ahead through Saka in the 28th minute, with the Arsenal star scoring a sublime volley.
Eze then added a second late on, with England poised to head into Sunday's fixture against Albania with renewed momentum.
Tuchel was proud of his side for digging deep to secure victory. The former Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund boss said: “It was a difficult match. It was complicated because they knew everything about us and we knew nothing about them.
“Go through the list of players, they are at top clubs, they play in top leagues. They have individual quality, they came with new energy and they made it a final for them.
“I liked the first half a lot. I think we deserved to go up, I think we deserved to have maybe a second goal with Harry's header.
“Second-half, we didn't get the pressing right all the time, they escaped sometimes from the deep build-up into fast attacks so the back four had to work hard to keep the clean sheet.
England have won all their World Cup qualifying matches
|PA
“We had to overcome some difficult moments but I like it, not everything is easy.
“Not every win is 2-0, 3-0, 5-0. It is good. We kept a clean sheet and it was decisive in the end.
“We had a good impact from the bench.
“The game became a bit more stretched after we did the subs. We brought on quality players and they wanted to show that.”
England are already guaranteed to be at next summer's World Cup.
As for Serbia, their qualification quest continues on Sunday when they face Latvia (5pm).