Tuchel pitch – England head coach Thomas Tuchel says pitch concerns tied to the New Zealand friendly won’t change who plays, even after he admitted a photo left him “a little bit worried.” England are in Florida for their pre-World Cup camp, train with 27 players, and face N
Thomas Tuchel looked at the photo, felt the worry, and then told himself—wait until they’re on the ground.
Ahead of England’s friendly against New Zealand. the England head coach was asked about reports questioning the state of the pitch at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Daily Mail had described the surface as a “plug and play” pitch laid just a week ago. but pictures had suggested it was “slightly disjointed in parts.”.
Tuchel’s answer was blunt: the reports would not touch his selection plans. “I’ve heard it will be OK,” he said at a news conference on Friday, adding, “I saw a photo from a journalist which made me a little bit worried and concerned, but let’s decide when we are there.”
He set out what will happen on the day if anything looks off. “If there are any issues, we can always react to it,” Tuchel said. “The plan is to play 45 minutes with two complete teams, to expose everyone to the same amount of minutes.”
The session doesn’t end with the whistle. Tuchel linked the match directly to the next few days of preparation, saying, “Then we can continue for the next three days with the same load of training. That is the plan and at the moment we are sticking to it.”
England are in Florida for their pre-World Cup camp in West Palm Beach. The match against New Zealand comes on Saturday (21:00 BST), and it’s the first of two warm-ups before the World Cup officially starts on 11 June.
The second friendly is against Costa Rica on 10 June (21:00 BST). Several World Cup matches are being played in stadiums that usually host artificial surfaces but have been relaid with grass. with travelling ground staff from the Football Association reported to be liaising with the venue over the pitch.
Tuchel said England have no injury concerns. Even with the World Cup starting so close, he returned to the same point—selection won’t be swayed by fears from afar. “The condition of the pitch will not affect my team selection,” he said.
England’s preparations in Florida continued on Friday with a 27-player training session. The session did not include Arsenal players Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka because they were involved in the Champions League final on 30 May.
To boost the numbers in the session, Premier League players Josh King, Rio Ngumoha, Ethan Nwaneri, Alex Scott and Jason Steele have been training with Tuchel’s squad.
Goalkeeper Dean Henderson was also training, having joined the squad after Crystal Palace’s victory in the Conference League final.
Thomas Tuchel England New Zealand friendly Raymond James Stadium West Palm Beach World Cup build-up pitch concerns Dean Henderson Champions League final Eberechi Eze Noni Madueke Declan Rice Bukayo Saka
So he’s worried but still plays? Seems kinda dumb.
Daily Mail always overdramatizes, but if it’s “disjointed” that’s bad for injuries right? Like they’re basically gambling 45 minutes.
I saw that pitch is like a Buccaneers thing, so it should be fine? But also they said it’s “plug and play” which sounds fake like they just slapped grass down. Idk man Florida is always hot too.
Why even look at a photo if you’re gonna act like it won’t affect anything lol. Also “react to it” like what, magically fix the field in real time? Seems like England should’ve just trained on the actual stadium surface instead of worrying about journalists.