England are chasing a perfect World Cup qualifying record under Thomas Tuchel with Albania their final competitive opponents after seven wins from seven matches
Thomas Tuchel has warned his England players not to risk getting a red card like Cristiano Ronaldo and miss the World Cup. Portugal superstar Ronaldo was sent off against Republic of Ireland and could now miss at least one game of next summer’s tournament.
England boss Tuchel says he will warn his players before they face their final qualifier with Albania and remind them they are already qualified so they should not do anything silly. Tuchel said: “It is important, I’m aware of it and we will talk about it. No red cards please.
“If we have a doubt then, because we are through and we are in a position with last man then the player holds the shirt he gets the red card. If there’s a doubt then it would be smarter not to do it.
“If he goes in the last man example and if we can avoid it no red card of course but I don’t want to make it too big a subject because then you have a cloud above you. But if you have the choice: don’t do it.”
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Tuchel also revealed that he has spoken with Tottenham defender Djed Spence after the full-back snubbed his own club manager when he left the pitch three weeks ago. Spence and Micky van de Ven ignored manager Thomas Frank, who wanted the defenders to thank the fans, and Tuchel made it clear he did not like it.
Tuchel did not consider leaving Spence out but has laid down the last ahead of the Albania game. “Yeah, I didn’t like it,” he said. “Because the players know they are not only national players when they are the 10 days in camp, they are always national players and the standard of behaviour is always important.”
Meanwhile, Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa will miss the Albania game after suffering a calf injury which is a worry for his club side. Tuchel added: “Ezri is not with us, he has a tight calf and got assessed in the afternoon and didn’t take the risk so we didn’t take him.
“Everyone else is ready to go. He has had a lot of matches for Aston Villa so was a candidate to have a rest.”
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