17 hours ago
England face Thomas Tuchel dressing down after ‘playing with fire'
England players face a dressing down from head coach Thomas Tuchel after he accused them of 'playing with fire' and promised to spell out exactly what is expected from his squad in a team meeting on Sunday.
Tuchel insisted that he had no problem with his team being booed at half-time and full-time of the laboured 1-0 World Cup qualifying victory over minnows Andorra.
Captain Harry Kane scored the winning goal, but Tuchel did not try to put a positive spin on the performance or the result.
'I didn't like the attitude, how we ended the game,' said Tuchel. 'I liked the attitude, how we started, the first 25 minutes, but I didn't like the last 25, 30. I think we lacked the seriousness and the urgency that is needed in a World Cup qualifier. I think we played with fire. I didn't like the attitude in the end. I didn't like the body language. It was not what the occasion needed.
'I think in the end, we played with fire, honestly. I felt it almost like in a cup game where the favourite does not smell the danger. I didn't feel a team that was aware it was only 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier. We were not happy with ourselves. Step by step the energy dropped when we needed exactly the opposite. But we couldn't deliver and so we got away with a win.
'I think we still deserved the win and we've got three wins and three clean sheets. OK, we will not stop encouraging them and make clear after we have a proper look at the match what we want from them. We need to look at it in detail and do better on Tuesday (against Senegal).'
'England fans booing is OK'
The 8,000 travelling England fans inside Espanyol's RCDE Stadium in Barcelona booed Tuchel's team off at half-time, when the game was goalless, and also booed at full-time following the narrow victory.
Asked about the booing, Tuchel said: 'The booing is OK. First of all, the support was amazing, unbelievable, it created a fantastic atmosphere for a match like this. When I came out, straightaway I was excited, they made it a very special atmosphere.
'They were underwhelmed and not happy with our performance, especially with how we ended the first half. I don't think we can blame them for that. We cannot even blame them for how we ended the match. The opposite, I thought they were fantastic for the whole match.'
England's narrow victory meant Tuchel became the first Three Lions manager to start with three wins without conceding a goal, but the German took little consolation from that. He also refused to use the fact that the Andorra game came at the end of a long club season for his players as an excuse.
'The (international) window is the window so no excuses or nothing,' said Tuchel. 'The clubs don't like the window and even for the national teams, it's not an easy window because they come from holiday or a long season. But still, I think we can and have to do better over the 90 minutes.
'We played 25 minutes where I had the feeling that it was a matter of time before we scored where we created the chances. But we lost this momentum completely and the last 20 minutes of the first half. We started OK, maybe, in the second half but we lost this momentum again.
'We created an xG of three and underperformed with one goal, which is very unusual in a match like this where you usually overperform an xG. Normally if you create three, you score five, if you create two, you score four, by individual quality and finishing. But with a lack of energy and a lack of quality in these moments, at the end of both halves, I think it's the most honest thing to admit it. We expected more from us. We can deliver more. We will try to take this as a learning (process) and do better as quickly as possible.'
