Tuchel criticises – Thomas Tuchel came away frustrated after England’s low-key 1-0 win over New Zealand, criticising his first-half XI for drifting from the gameplan and slamming the uneven pitch despite no injuries.
England may have started their World Cup preparations with a low-key 1-0 victory over New Zealand, but Thomas Tuchel left the session anything but satisfied.
The German appeared unimpressed by an opening 45 minutes in which Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game. Tuchel’s message to his starters was blunt: he felt they didn’t execute what they were working on.
“I’m OK,” he said. “Not super happy. In the first half we were out of position and it was a bit too much freestyle.”
When Tuchel was asked what he meant by “freestyle,” he pointed to a breakdown in structure. “We were changing positions for too long,” he said. “It’s not a problem to change positions. but you have to find the position again. so that everyone knows how to start the attack. and then we can just accelerate the game easier.”.
He also questioned England’s attacking choices, arguing they abandoned what the team had been training on. “And we were taking crosses, a lot of crosses, long-range shots, which is normally not our style of play. We played a lot of long balls. we played a lot of long passes – that was not part of training in the last four days.”.
The pitch itself came in for criticism too. On Friday, Daily Mail Sport revealed how England were to face a “plug and play” pitch laid around a week ago at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tuchel was far from convinced it helped his side.
“It was very difficult to play on,” he said. “We have no injuries and there were no concerns, but it was very uneven and to move the ball quickly, when you have the ball for the majority of the match, it doesn’t help you.”
Asked whether he was surprised he had to deal with that in England’s first outing. Tuchel replied: “It is what it is. It can happen. I know it from pre-season tours overseas. that this can happen if you play in stadiums. normally in football stadiums. that the pitch is maybe too new. and not fully grown and not fully even.”.
Tuchel’s first-half selection added another layer to the scrutiny. He began with Morgan Rogers in the side. which led some to wonder whether Jude Bellingham might have to settle for a place on the bench when the tournament starts. But Bellingham arrived for the second half and was made captain, and Tuchel warned against reading hidden meaning into that.
“Decisions are not made yet for Croatia, and there were no hidden messages,” Tuchel said. “We try to have more or less equal teams. and Harry and Morgan played many matches for us together. and we had yesterday a strong group in training with Jude. Nico O’Reilly and Elliot Anderson. and we just kept them together because they enjoyed playing against us yesterday in training. So that was it, no secret messages.”.
The manager did, however, praise Bellingham’s return to action after injury. “He comes from an injury and is full of energy, and happy to be back on the pitch,” Tuchel said. “He had his break. unfortunately. in a decisive part of the season. Champions League season. and then a national campaign for the championship in Spain. so this was very unfortunate for Real Madrid and for him personally. but you can see now that he is actually in a sweet spot. he comes back. he’s fresh. he wants to play. and he’s in top shape.”.
England’s opponents weren’t shy about their own view of the match, either. All Whites coach Darren Bazeley — the former Watford, Wolves and England Under 21 defender — also sounded unimpressed.
“If they want to win the World Cup they need to be better than they were today,” Bazeley said.
England New Zealand Thomas Tuchel Harry Kane Morgan Rogers Jude Bellingham Raymond James Stadium World Cup preparations Darren Bazeley World Cup
Freestyle? Sounds like they showed up and just did whatever.
1-0 win but he’s mad?? I guess England can’t even be happy for a warmup game lol. Also that pitch thing is wild, like how you blame the ground but not the players?
Not gonna lie I read “freestyle” and thought it was like some rapper thing, so he wants them to stay on positions but also play more like training?? Which is it. Crosses and long balls though… England always does that when they’re panicking, so kinda checks out.
Uneven pitch, plug and play, long passes, taking crosses… so basically they didn’t prepare and the field was trash. Doesn’t Kane always score and then they act like it was a failure anyway? Maybe Tuchel just mad because it wasn’t a blowout. World Cup prep or not, 1-0 is 1-0.