England manager Thomas Tuchel was without a host of his star players in the recent international break, but recorded the most impressive win of his reign away at Serbia
Thomas Tuchel has promised to carry on being “brave” – even at the expense of some of England’s big names.
England produced one of their best results in years by thrashing Serbia 5-0 and did it without the likes of Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Morgan Rogers, Noni Madueke and Elliot Anderson really stepped up and have staked a claim ahead of next year’s World Cup with Tuchel promising competition will be fierce.tre
Tuchel insisted that he wanted a tighter squad to ensure there is positive tension in the camp and also that players will always see every call-up as a privilege. But Tuchel also spelt out that he is ready to make big calls – and will do it again ahead of next summer’s World Cup.
England boss Tuchel said: “I am always brave. You know that. But I don’t talk now about hypothetical names that can be left out. Let’s see who’s fit and available.
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“I think we took some brave decisions already. We nominated a squad of only 21 to keep the competition going. The competition is on. If you are in camp, you are in your best behaviour, your best shape, best form and you make the best of it.
“It’s a privilege to be in camp and then fight for your place. If you can help everyone to be better and to grow and this is what we did.”
Tuchel also says that the win in Serbia underlined just how important team work is together with team spirit and that is vital for his England. He added: “Of course. This is a team sport. This was team work in its purest form.
“They have the quality to play for us and the hunger to play for their country and everyone gets his chance. If a big player misses out on a tournament, we need to have solutions, if he misses a camp, we need to have solutions.
“We have to focus on the guys who are available and who are ready to be the best versions of themselves and the best teammate possible and this is what we did.”
The dominant win in Serbia was by far the most impressive night of the Tuchel era so far and the England boss said the best part of it was no players “waving, eyeballing or bad words.”
Tuchel hailed England’s teamwork and camaraderie in Belgrade and, while it was impossible to know if he was pointing the finger at any players, he loved the togetherness on the pitch.
It was a telling message of how he wants England to behave on the pitch as it was clear he will not tolerate any strops or prima donnas.
Tuchel said: “The teamwork, the effort we put in to help each other out, the intensity. We never stopped running. There was no attitude after a mistake, there was no frustration, there was no waving, there was no eyeballing, there was no bad words.
“It was just a team ready to work and put 90 minutes effort in. We didn’t concede a shot on target. We didn’t allow any big chances. We need to do the little things right. I felt that the team was ready and I am just very happy that they proved it.”
Tuchel also highlighted Madueke’s goal as a great example of exactly how he wants his team to play after a fine move rounded off by the Arsenal winger.
He continued: “It was a brilliant goal, because we came from deep build-up against high-pressing team, everyone took the right decisions, and we could go from deep build-up into fast attack.
“This is very rare because not everyone attacks against us, this also involves a risk, in the second half we took the wrong decision and almost conceded a big chance out of it. It’s almost a risk-reward question but the second goal was a brilliant goal, yeah.”
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