Thomas Tuchel has challenged Cole Palmer to continue his current form into the new year when the ex-Chelsea head coach takes charge of England.

The Blues parted company with Tuchel a year before signing Palmer from Manchester City, but the German will now have a chance to work with the player after being appointed as the new England coach. Despite starring for Chelsea since the start of last season, Palmer only has 11 caps for his country, with just four of those starts.

After withdrawing from the September and November break squads, he missed four of Lee Carsley's six Nations League games in charge. However, Palmer started both October matches, at home to Greece and away in Finland.

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England's next matches are in March when they start up their qualifying campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The draw for that took place at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Friday, with the Three Lions set to play Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra in Group K.

Tuchel attended the event before officially starting work in the new year and he spoke afterwards to Sky Sports. Asked about Palmer and how he will fit into the team, the coach replied: "That's a bit too far, going into individual players!

"But he's definitely on form; everyone would agree on that. Hopefully, he can still grow and keep the level up, and then everything will be fine.

"Everyone enjoys watching him. He's cool, composed, and very clinical when finishing and assisting, so he's very impressive at the moment."

Tuchel also told reporters that "it should be a clean start and a clear narrative" for all players from January. Palmer will hope to benefit from that - after a stop-start of 12 months since debuting for the senior national team against Malta last November during the European Championship qualification campaign.