Thomas Tuchel has warned his England squad he will not “sugarcoat” his public assessment of performances after criticising aspects of Saturday’s 1-0 win over Andorra.
Harry Kane‘s 50th-minute close-range finish was enough to maintain a 100% record in World Cup qualifying from three matches under Tuchel.
However, England were booed off by a section of the 7,000-strong travelling support at both half-time and full-time, before Tuchel questioned the team’s attitude and suggested they were “playing with fire” by not closing out the game with the requisite intensity.
Speaking in a news conference at St. George’s Park on Monday ahead of a friendly against Senegal, Tuchel said: “I protect my players, I said no names of players and it is not an individual matter. But we as a team, we simply did not match our own standards. I did not like the last 10 minutes because I felt on the sideline we didn’t play seriously enough like what we needed to do in a World Cup qualifier.
“What I have told you I have already told the team directly. There are no messages that I give via a press conference. Everything I say here, I already said to the players. Why should we sugarcoat it? You have been in the stadium, why should I tell you that we had a good game and we are happy with what we did if we are not happy? No harm done. We can handle criticism.
“I have always strongly believed that a group of football players can speak honestly to each other, I always include myself. It is always a ‘we’ message we try to give. Now it’s on us to do better.
“The attitude towards training, the attitude in camp, the commitment from the players, was outstanding. Everybody wanted to be there, everybody wanted to be involved, everybody wanted to start and to play in this game. We then got a little bit stuck. We take our analysis from this and try to do better of course.”
England are expected to make several changes against Senegal with Bukayo Saka set to return to the starting line-up, while Tuchel hinted Kane will continue to captain the side.
Tuchel urged his group to savour every moment they have together with the World Cup now just a year away.
“It’s a learning at the moment. Today will be our 11th training session together, the same as one-and-a-half weeks in club football. Here it is half a year.
“We need to worship training, we need to worship every minute in matches and of course we learn stuff without over-interpreting stuff. It’s good to see players in tight situations and in moments when things are not easy. At the moment, it is a big learning of course.”
Speaking to reporters after Tuchel, Saka refused to compare the new manager with his predecessor Gareth Southgate but said: “If I just speak about Thomas himself, since I’ve come into the camp, I guess he’s been quite demanding, quite intense on the pitch.
“Off the pitch, more relaxed, a nice guy, let us enjoy ourselves and crested a nice environment for all the players to enjoy.”
