Thomas Tuchel enjoyed a dream start to his stint as England boss with a 2-0 win against Albania at Wembley but the German wasn’t pleased about everything he saw from the Three Lions
Thomas Tuchel demanded more from Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden in the wake of England’s win over Albania. The pair were named in the German’s first Three Lions line-up at Wembley on Friday night, the former earning a recall after months out in the cold under Gareth Southgate.
But while England ran out 2-0 winners to kick off the German’s reign in the perfect fashion, it was a mixed night for both widemen. Rashford had his moments at Wembley but was quiet in patches, while Foden struggled to make an impact in his favoured position on the right-wing.
Tuchel made it clear that he wanted to see more from both players in terms of dribbling, pointing out that particular aspect of their game was “missing” at times against Albania, who frustrated their hosts for much of the night.
Speaking to ITV after the final whistle, Tuchel also admitted the team’s performance as a whole needed improvement, saying: “We can do better, we have to do better. We started well, we had seven-eight minutes with 100% ball possession with a lot of passes and high energy but the opponent is hard to wear down as they defend in a deep, deep block.
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“In all of the matches we saw in the Euros they managed to not concede chances, not concede goals. Second half, I felt that we were too slow and in general not enough runs off the ball to get more often behind the line.”
On both Rashford and Foden, the ex-Chelsea boss added: “We hope for more impact in these positions and then we tried with Anthony [Gordon] and Jarrod [Bowen]. I hope for a little bit more impact with more dribbling and less passing. More aggressive runs towards the box. In general that was missing. I think all of the chances come from the little runs behind the line, Jude had some good runs in the first-half of the first half.
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“Myles scored from it and Kyle Walker had one where we had the big chance to score the second one. There was a bit missing they were not as decisive as they can be.”
While Rashford and Foden underwhelmed on Tuchel’s England bow, a couple of players did shine, namely Myles Lewis-Skelly and Jude Bellingham. The Arsenal youngster netted on debut following a standout pass from the Real Madrid midfielder. Asked about Lewis-Skelly, Tuchel said: “Amazing player. Amazing personality. He came into camp and showed straight away that it’s so normal to fall in love with him. He’s a top player, amazing character. It is well deserved.”
And Tuchel continued his glowing praise when talking about Bellingham, who he believes is ready to drive England on to glory. He added: “No doubt that he is a key player for us. Fantastic pass to assist the first goal. We expect special things from Jude. He is ready to take this responsibility and we have to create an environment and structure where we can see more of it.”
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