Thomas Tuchel has delivered a scathing assessment of England’s performance under Gareth Southgate at Euro 2024, saying they lacked “hunger” and “identity” last summer.
England fought their way to a second consecutive Euros final before losing 2-1 to Spain but Tuchel felt the side were afraid of losing and played without any excitement during a campaign in which Southgate faced fierce criticism from supporters and pundits.
The new head coach was forthright when asked by ITV whether he thought the team had a clear playing style before his appointment. “Not last summer, no,” said Tuchel, who takes charge of his first game when England open their World Cup qualifying campaign by hosting Albania at Wembley on Friday night.
Asked what was missing, Tuchel said: “The identity, the clarity, the rhythm, the repetition of patterns, the freedom of player, the expression of player, the hunger. They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament in my observation than having the excitement and hunger to win.”
The German believes that getting the excitement back into England’s play will be crucial. “That people feel ‘that is the team to beat’ [was missing],” Tuchel said. “That we arrive with a group to beat, that we know when we arrive after qualifying that everyone knows this is the team to beat.
“We want to be open to adapt and this will start tomorrow. That was my feeling watching on TV, long before I knew I would be in charge. It was a pretty clear statement and I want us to play with a hunger to win and we want to implement the togetherness and joy to win, rather than the fear to lose.”
Tuchel considered the notion that the shirt weighs heavily on England’s players. “I know what the players mean,” he said. “It maybe is another way to put it what I felt watching watching the Euros.
“I felt tension and pressure on the shoulders of the players, and it felt to me that they were more afraid, like they were afraid not to lose and not to have even more pressure added maybe in their home country than the excitement to maybe make something special happen.
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“I think we need to turn this around because we have so many experienced players, so many players who won the trophies with their clubs, and I think we have every right to be self-confident.”
Tuchel confirmed that Chelsea’s Cole Palmer had withdrawn with a hamstring injury.
Source: theguardian.com
