Thomas Tuchel has said that England were “more afraid” of defeat at the 2024 European Championship rather than “having the excitement and hunger to win it”.
The new England head coach gave a damning assessment of England’s campaign in Germany, where they struggled to perform but still reached the final where they were beaten by Spain.
Tuchel starts his England tenure on Friday night with a World Cup qualifier against Albania at Wembley. And in his first pre-match press conference he pledged to bring back the qualities that England lacked during the fourth and final tournament of Gareth Southgate’s time in charge.
“They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament, in my observation, than having the excitement and hunger to win it,” Tuchel said in an interview with ITV released on Thursday. Asked specifically which qualities England lacked, Tuchel provided a long list: “The identity, the clarirty, the rhythm, the repetition of patterns, the freedom of players, the expression of players, the hunger.”
When Tuchel gave his pre-match news conference on Thursday lunchtime, he explained his comments in more detail. “It was just my feeling,” he said. “It was my feedback and first of all it was my feeling in front of TV, long, long before I even knew that I may be in charge,” Tuchel said. “That was my feeling. I think it’s pretty clear statement. I don’t know how to put it in other words, and I think it has to be the other way around.”
Tuchel returned to his comments later in the press conference when asked whether the England shirt is especially ‘heavy’ for the players.
“It is in fact not, it’s a high-quality shirt,” he joked. “It will weigh less when you come to America, there is already work on a shirt that adapts to the climate. The shirt is not heavy in reality.”
“Maybe another way to put it, what I felt watching the Euros, I felt tension and pressure on the shoulders of the players. They were more afraid. They were playing to not lose, and not to have even more pressure added in the home country, (rather) than the excitement to make something special happen. We need to turn this around.”
Southgate made significant changes to his squad for the Euros, dropping players who had served him well over the years — Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish, Harry Maguire — and taking a new generation of players in their place. England never convinced on the pitch, and needed a late equaliser against Slovakia, penalties against Switzerland and a late winner against the Netherlands to progress.
“I felt that the team maybe in the Euros like were — how should I put this? — not like free enough to express itself in a stable structure,” Tuchel added. “But England was not the only team to change structure from match to match. I think we have to make sure that when we play now that everyone knows his role on the field, also accepts his role and plays discipline in his role… But we need to bond a little bit better, we need to find more rhythm and a little bit better connections on the field.”
(Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
