Photo: Collected
England have lost 3-2 to world champions Spain at Wembley Stadium in London in the opening round of the UEFA Nations League. After this defeat, Thomas Tuchel has once again put forward his thinking. In his view, giving players or clubs the chance to pick matches of their own choice during the international break would be ‘madness’.
At the same time, he has also promised to go all out for a win against the Czech Republic in Prague next Tuesday. England will play four Nations League matches in this long international break. In the first of these, Tuchel’s side lost to World Cup champions Spain on Saturday. They will then play away to the Czech Republic on Tuesday and Croatia on Saturday. The side will face the Czech Republic again at home on 6 October.
Because of the packed schedule, calls are being raised for some players who got very little time off in the summer due to the World Cup to be rested. Asked whether any club coach had contacted him, Tuchel told journalists that he does not take calls from Premier League coaches; when he was in club football, he himself never called any national team coach either. He said it is not possible for him to manage players’ playing time or minutes. Players holding back a little, playing half the time or resting for a match – he will never do anything like that, and it is this that he termed madness.
He further said that they want to win the next match and that the ideal situation is to go for it again and again – to start afresh with at least six or seven players, so that responsibility can be entrusted to them and they can feel that trust. Tuchel said his side will play with full strength in the match against the Czech Republic at the Fortuna Arena in Prague on Tuesday, and that they must be attacking and proactive.
The England coach does not want to make many changes to the starting eleven. Tuchel admitted that the defeat to Spain has increased the pressure on the team ahead of the trip to Prague, but he is not worried about it. In his words, there is no situation that they cannot handle; they have to be proactive and go for it. There is no room here for excessive calculation about players or for conservative tactics, and the team must play the way it wants to play, he remarked.
Bellingham created the most goal-scoring chances, five, in the match against Spain. Among them was his assist for Anthony Gordon’s equaliser (1-1). It was also he who won the penalty, though Harry Kane failed to convert a chance; had it been a goal, England would have gone 3-1 ahead. His runs with the ball at his feet repeatedly troubled the world champions’ defence. Besides, in the 35th minute of the match there was also a clash with Marc Cucurella, his teammate at Real Madrid.
