England manager Thomas Tuchel has warned that he will not sugarcoat his public assessment of performances by his players.
This is coming after he criticized the entire team for the underwhelming display during Saturday’s 1-0 win vs Andorra.
Speaking in a news conference at St. George’s Park on Monday ahead of a friendly against Senegal, Tuchel said that nobody should expect him to lie that the country had a good game when his players play poorly.
According to him, while he might protect the underperforming players by hiding their names from time to time, he would not hesitate to call out poor displays that would affect the development of the England national team.
The ex-Chelsea manager disclosed that every criticism heard in his press conferences is said to the players in the dressing room, therefore, he does not intend to hide anything.
“I protect my players, I said no names of players and it is not an individual matter. But we as a team, we simply did not match our own standards. I did not like the last 10 minutes because I felt on the sideline we didn’t play seriously enough like what we needed to do in a World Cup qualifier.
What I have told you I have already told the team directly. There are no messages that I give via a press conference. Everything I say here, I already said to the players. Why should we sugarcoat it? You have been in the stadium, why should I tell you that we had a good game and we are happy with what we did if we are not happy? No harm done. We can handle criticism.
I have always strongly believed that a group of football players can speak honestly to each other, I always include myself. It is always a ‘we’ message we try to give. Now it’s on us to do better.
The attitude towards training, the attitude in camp, the commitment from the players, was outstanding. Everybody wanted to be there, everybody wanted to be involved, everybody wanted to start and to play in this game. We then got a little bit stuck. We take our analysis from this and try to do better of course,” he said.
He further urged his players to enjoy every moment they have together now with the 2026 World Cup getting closer by the day.
He concluded by saying that his boys recently had their 11th training session together, stressing that more bonding sessions will inevitably boost team unity.
“It’s a learning at the moment. Today will be our 11th training session together, the same as one-and-a-half weeks in club football. Here it is half a year.
We need to worship training, we need to worship every minute in matches and of course we learn stuff without over-interpreting stuff. It’s good to see players in tight situations and in moments when things are not easy. At the moment, it is a big learning of course,” he added.
