Thomas Tuchel is refusing to believe his stars will be ‘weighed down’ by the England shirt – insisting stars will express themselves under his managership
Thomas Tuchel borrowed a line from John Barnes to get his England players in the mood. Former World Cup star Barnes told players to “express themselves” in his famous rap in the World In Motion song ahead of Italia 90.
That was Tuchel’s message as he ridiculed the notion that the England shirt should weigh on the shoulders of the players because of expectation levels. England boss Tuchel said: “I accept the first episode needs to come from us. We are on it and hopefully we can prove it tomorrow and increase our excitement but also our confidence within the shirt.
“We need to make the players look so good like they look in club football because there is a little bit of a lack of expression once they wear the England shirt and there is normally no need for it.
“It’s normal there is so much noise around the game, so many opinions around the game. It’s not worth it to get distracted and bothered by it all.
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“But you all said it and I have heard it so many times now – the weight of the shirt, the weight of the shirt. But what if there is no weight of the shirt? Why do we have this weight of the shirt here?
“We are not like serial winners who are supposed to win it again and again and again and we will come up, hopefully, the best teams in the world and only one can win so…
“I saw the last friendly of Spain before the Euros on TV. I was not involved in anything I just saw the last friendly. I was never watching a friendly match in Spain but I watched the whole match suddenly because I felt ‘wow, this is the real deal here, what are they doing? This is exciting.’
“They were winning 5-0 or something and the stadium went crazy. The difference to the last match of the English team and how they were sent off – a half-empty stadium and some boos – it was so, so different.”
Welcome to Wembley, Thomas. England had paper aeroplanes and boos in their last game before the Euros and you can be sure the sell-out crowd want results against Albania on Friday night.
It is Tuchel’s first game and a chance for him to stamp his authority on the England team but he also wants his players to be tough to play against. Tuchel also admitted that it is hard balance between the need to entertain and win but is determined to find the right solutions.
When asked how he wants his team to play, Tuchel said: “That we are adaptable and that we are tough. I’m not so sure if we can deliver the tactical solution to every problem on the pitch as we can maybe deliver it in club football and even there sometimes things happen where you just have to adapt within the structure yourself.
“I want that when the opponents come out and see our teams lined up in the tunnel that they know: ‘Oof, that this is going to be tough, they will give us a hard time. This is going to be a tough time.’
“And there is a certain way of playing. This is how it should feel for the other team to come out but it needs a bit of time maybe and it needs a bit of observation and of course of us being together.
“Winning, in the end, winning, especially in a tournament but I think it’s also entertainment, people come tomorrow to be entertained.
“I think we need to entertain and maybe need to define it a little bit differently, it’s not only a 4-0, it’s not only a 5-1 that it’s entertaining, but that they feel the spirit, that they fall in love with this team.”
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