Only a week in what he likes to call his 60 days of preparation for the World Cup 2026, Thomas Tuchel starts to learn a bit from what it's like to be an international manager.
For example, it is not easy to bring Premier League Pace, Power and Pace to a match against Albania when they refuse to leave their own half until the first goal of the match is scored. On Sunday, Tuchel referred to the possibility to play an old-fashioned 4-4-2 and seemed to be only half a joke.
Similarly, Tuchel now knows how difficult it can be to extract an achievement at an international level from a player struggling for his club. Phil Foden was just as poor for England last Friday as he recently visited Manchester City. He will be very lucky if he gets Latvia again at Wembley.
More fundamentally, however, Tuchel continues to struggle with what he thinks were fundamental errors in the way the players of Gareth Southgate operated on and out of the field during the eight years of his predecessor.
Those among us who followed the journey of Southgate through Russia, London, Qatar and Germany and witnessed the positive way in which players started watching England with eyebrow raised as Tuchel efforts to significantly improve mental construction and power. We will see.
Nevertheless, while one of his senior players Declan Rice approached the issue of converting the tournament -last performances in tournament triumphs yesterday, he made a similar note.
“Thomas has put a great emphasis on the fact that we played in two finals and they both lost,” said Rice. 'So how can we grow even better as a group?
'Harry Kane is clearly our leader, but how can 11 players on the field all feel at ease together?
'We are all comfortable with each other, but sometimes it is different on the field. Sometimes you feel that you might not be able to say anything or that you can, but only against certain people. That should change.
'So I think Thomas was really good to be ruthless and say what you want to help each other and push each other, because we clearly want to win the World Cup.
“The best teams who won have not had one leader in the field, they have had four or five or six who can push a group.”
Harmony within a sporting environment can take many forms. A recurring problem is what works for one player, perhaps not for the other.
Tuchel said on Sunday, spoke at Tottenham's training field that he was at ease on Friday evening with his criticism of Foden and Marcus Rashford, which suggested that it was mild and that he only repeated what he had said privately after the Albania game.
However, it is not always that simple. Some players act phlegmatically with public criticism, while others blame it. And these are players, remember that Tuchel will not see late on Monday evening and the next international meeting in June. Everything that is being said now can linger. Again, rice was carefree. “I think you need that because you can't be at ease,” he said.
'This is international football at top level. Personally, I would rather be told by the manager than hidden. I prefer that, because then it will give me a kick -up of the A ***.
'It depends on the player. I don't know how Phil and Marcus have … I didn't know he had criticized them. I hadn't seen that.
'Personally it would encourage me to do it even better. The manager does not go nonsense. He knows he is here to win the World Cup. And to do that, you have to push everyone, and you have to feel uncomfortable. '
The English environment last summer was not everything it should have been. What felt like a final round too far for Southgate translated into a tournament camp that could develop, unusual friction levels and resentment.
Sometimes it was clearly shown on the field with much of it in the less than perfect body language of players such as Jude Bellingham.
The Real Madrid star is perhaps the best player in England, but did not always look like that in Germany. Asked about the importance of body language – but not specifically about Bellingham – Rice said: 'Body language is huge. In all layers of life you are constantly monitored in terms of your body language.
'People pick things up and you can see how someone feels out of body language.
'With some players it may seem as if their body language is bad, but that is because they give it. They are so desperate to win and do well. Even for myself it sometimes looks like, with my body language on the field, that I am frustrated or irritated, but that's just because I demand the most of myself.
“But I know that, in the eye, that can happen to” his shoulders are down, he has a gravy to someone else “and that can happen in a negative way. It can look bad, but it is also on the individual in terms of how they actually just want the best for the team and push others. That is what I felt like it was with the euro. '
Again, it is a rather fine line and it is unlikely that it will show itself against the 140th best international team in the world.
Much of what Tuchel will learn about his players in the coming 15 months will be discovered, away from the public eye. He has acknowledged that he himself.
The New England coach continues to frame two euro -left performances – in 2021 and 2024 – while opportunities are missed in itself instead of performance. If he can convince his players to view it that way, it can still be the only mental shift that really matters.
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