Tuchel, England and rising to tactical challenges
Fascinating tactical briefing from England's head coach
One of the many positive elements of having someone as self-confident as Thomas Tuchel as England’s head coach is the clarity of his thinking and forthright nature of his answering. His press conferences are fascinating and fun, although admittedly he hasn’t had to deal with much drama yet. Tuchel bounces in with that rolling gait of his, sits down, as at Wembley last night to preview England’s friendly with Uruguay, leans into the microphone and deals with any question. Why is Trent Alexander-Arnold out? The wrong “profile” as a defender. Why is Ben White back from exile? Everyone deserves “a second chance”. Does Cole Palmer have a chance? He’s under “pressure”.
All of these fill the airwaves and headlines. Tuchel is great copy. But away from the usual media narrative, Tuchel also talks about the game in great detail. He’s known as a deep thinker about the game and adept at communicating his thoughts to players. Also with the media. In enlightening exchanges yesterday, Tuchel addressed questions about whether it was important nowadays to pick warm-up opponents from outside Europe to prepare properly for the World Cup challenge? Or has there been a homogenisation of styles globally? There was obviously a familiarity with individual players tonight like Manuel Ugarte and Darwin Nunez, Federico Valverde and Ronald Araujo.
What came across from Tuchel yesterday was further appreciation of the complexities of his role, especially coming up against a tactician and maverick like Marcelo Bielsa. Uruguay currently struggle under him, the retiring Luis Suarez had a rant undermining his authority, and there are reports that a damaging defeat could cost Bielsa his job. But he’s still Bielsa. El Loco. Unpredictable. He’s still hugely respected by coaches like Tuchel. “Now we play against Bielsa! Everything is off (away from) textbooks! So we need to be on our top level. It doesn’t matter any more from which part of the world you play, it’s getting more and more complicated.”