Thomas Tuchel insists there is “no need to panic” despite England suffering a shock 3-1 friendly defeat at home to Senegal a year out from the World Cup.
Among the favourites for glory in North America, the Euro 2024 runners-up received a wake-up call as the German head coach’s honeymoon period came to a crashing end at the City Ground.
England were booed off for the second time in four days as Saturday’s stultifying 1-0 qualification win against minnows Andorra was followed by a first ever loss to African opposition on Tuesday evening.
Harry Kane’s early goal was cancelled out when Ismaila Sarr capitalised on poor defending in Nottingham, where Habib Diarra gave Senegal a deserved lead that substitute Jude Bellingham looked to have cancelled out late on.
But the equaliser was ruled out as Levi Colwill was adjudged to have handled in the build-up and second-half introduction Cheikh Sabaly added gloss just one year and a day until the World Cup gets under way.
Asked if they key message now is not to panic, England head coach Tuchel said: “Yes, 100 per cent. We lost a test (friendly) match so there is no need to panic.
“We have (played) three qualification games, we have nine points and not conceded. We will be competitive in September, and we will go for two more victories – 100 per cent we will.
“We know more now, we are smarter. It’s tough at the moment. I am the first one to dislike and hate losses like nothing else.
“But it’s not next week. We don’t go next week to the World Cup, we go in one year.
“I think by nature it will get more competitive in the nomination process and in the demands for the players to be nominated and to be with us in September, October and November because of the density, because we enter then a World Cup season.
“I think this comes by nature and from there we go.”
England’s performances this month have provided more questions than answers, including whether the weight of the shirt – something predecessor Gareth Southgate tried so hard to remove – was becoming an issue again.
“Not so sure what it means, this ‘weight of the shirt’,” Tuchel said. “Expectations come naturally with results and the success that Gareth had with the group and with England.
“I think it was regular in quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals. It comes with it.
“You feel how opponents approach matches against us, what it means to beat us and to compete with us. I heard it because my changing room was next to the dressing room of Senegal.
“I just asked myself ‘would we have celebrated in the same manner?’ And I ask myself ‘would I have been the first in the dressing room screaming and knocking my fist on some boxes?’
“Would the players then have joined or just said ‘what’s wrong with the gaffer? It is just a friendly match, he needs to calm down’.
“OK, I exaggerate a little bit but I include myself. I don’t think my players would be so happy and so excited about it, and not because they are not, but maybe because they demand it from themselves.
“Maybe the latest history brings with it that they think everything is normal – we need to win, we need to win in style and we need to win comfortably, we need to beat everyone and it needs to look easy, we need to be exciting and everything mixed together feels a little bit like it holds us down because I see the smile, I see the liveliness in training.
“I tell you pretty much all the time that I am excited by what I see and I have a strong belief in what we can do. But we miss at the moment the translation to the pitch.”
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