Thomas Tuchel has said he would rather England lose their final World Cup qualifier to Albania than any of his players risk picking up a red card that would rule them out of the start of next summer’s tournament.
The head coach has taken note of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo possibly facing a two-game ban at the World Cup after his dismissal against the Republic of Ireland on Thursday and will remind his side about the importance of discipline at the Air Albania Arena on Sunday night. Tuchel does not want any needless slips from England, who have already won their qualifying group, and will even tell his players to think twice before fouling an opponent who is through on goal.
“It is important,” the German said. “I’m aware of it and we will talk about it. No red cards please. We are through and we are in a position with last man then the player holds the shirt he gets the red card. If there’s a doubt then it would be smarter not to do it.
“If he goes in the last man example and if we can avoid it no red card of course. But I don’t want to make it too big a subject because then you have a cloud above you. But if you have the choice don’t do it.”
England will recall Wayne Rooney missing the start of Euro 2012 after picking up a needless red card at the end of qualifying. Tuchel wants clearer thinking. He is big on behaviour and also addressed Djed Spence appearing to snub Thomas Frank after Tottenham’s defeat by Chelsea earlier this month.
Tuchel was not impressed with Spence walking past the Spurs manager. He did not consider leaving the full-back out of this squad but has spoken to him about the incident. “I didn’t like it,” Tuchel said. “Because the players know they are not only national players when they are the 10 days in camp, they are always national players and the standard of behaviour is always important.”
England, who are yet to concede a goal in Group K, have travelled to Tirana without Ezri Konsa after the centre-back picked up a minor knock. Marc Guéhi is already out, meaning Dan Burn could partner John Stones in central defence.
Tuchel is weighing up whether to make major changes to his starting XI. He suggested that there could be an opening next to Declan Rice in central midfield, raising the prospect of Adam Wharton or Jordan Henderson coming in for Elliot Anderson, while the big call is whether Jude Bellingham replaces Morgan Rogers in the No 10 position.
Rogers started in the win over Serbia on Thursday and was replaced by Bellingham in the second half. The latter went on to combine with Phil Foden when Eberechi Eze scored England’s second goal.
However, Tuchel said England became “a little disconnected from front to back” after Foden, Bellingham and Eze came on. Had he worked out why?
“We have, but we only had two days and we very quickly went to analyse Albania and our strategy against Albania,” he said. “We needed to adjust our pressing in the first half but in the second half everything was OK. We missed sometimes our trigger and we were not so sure who attacks the goalkeeper and we were not so close as we want to be but nothing big. We saw from the data that our physical output was one of the highest that we had with the national team, so it was good.”
Tuchel said club considerations would not come into his selection decisions. “We think about the players and took already care of some of the players,” he said. “Declan and Morgan Rogers play a lot of minutes and we took them off after 65 which makes a big difference and we will work in the same way tomorrow. Our first thought is about the player and then we implement a certain style. We cannot now allow ourselves to run less, and we have only this camp to keep things going for ourselves”
Tuchel was unmoved by a suggestion that Rogers’ understanding of England’s pressing triggers could see Bellingham become an impact player from the bench. “Jude will always be an impact player because he is too good to not have an impact,” he said. “We didn’t know 100% what was coming from Serbia and we identify ourselves through our high press and work rate.
“I just felt Morgan played the last matches together with Declan and Harry [Kane] and they had an understanding in the middle, and it might be too difficult to adjust. I said it also to Jude. But Jude can start any match for us, there is no doubt. He will always have an impact when he plays. He is too good not to have an impact.”
Tuchel said he was no longer experimenting. He has not named a conventional No 9 to provide cover for Kane in this squad but added that it is unlikely he goes to the World Cup with only one striker.
