Thomas Tuchel has not been short of recommended reading material since his appointment as England’s head coach. Or documentaries to watch. The suggestions have come from everywhere, but especially the media, who are eager to help out with presumed gaps in his knowledge of the nation’s football history. This is the real cost of turning to a guy from overseas.
Has Tuchel seen the fly-on-the-wall programme with Graham Taylor from 1994: An Impossible Job? No? He has to put that right. In fact, wouldn’t it be great if Tuchel could allow the cameras in for a sequel as he targets glory at the 2026 World Cup? It was put to him a few months back. Strangely, he did not seem keen.
As for the books, he has been given plenty, the latest handed over on Tuesday night after the 5-0 win against Serbia enabled his team to take a grip on the automatic qualifying spot from Group K. It was a copy of All Played Out by Pete Davies – the behind-the-scenes takedown of the England circus at the 1990 World Cup.
Tuchel, though, knows his stuff. Especially on Italia 90, which he followed as an obsessive 16-year-old fan. “I was watching like crazy … I was Chris Waddle with the collar up in my garden,” he said, gesturing as to how the England winger wore his shirt. “I was Paul Gascoigne. I was all these kinds of guys.”
There was a tenderness to the reflections, born perhaps out of the realisation that he was primed to fulfil a boyhood dream and compete at a World Cup, although he knows qualification is not yet assured.
“There was no internet back then, no online focusing … there was just this book you got from the Euros and from the World Cup,” he said. “I always got it as a present, either for my birthday or for Christmas, so we had these books and all the photos from every match of a World Cup.
“I looked at these things for four years. I knew every player. I looked at their shoes and their style and this was something magical. That’s why, if you know me, you know what it means to me to hopefully go to a World Cup, what it means to me to qualify and go with England … just a brilliant moment in my journey. I enjoy it a lot and I will give my very best.”
It was good to see him so relaxed, the mood around the England camp utterly transformed by the swatting aside of Serbia. Previously, there had been a flatness, the performances underwhelming. Tuchel’s England made a statement and the sense of possibility has returned.
He had a jokey “no comment” when asked whether his native West Germany deserved to beat England in the semi-finals at Italia 90, the night of Gazza’s tears and Waddle’s penalty shootout miss. And there was a sparkle about him as he talked up the aspect of the Serbia game that most pleased him – the teamwork. “It was the effort we put in to help each other out, the intensity. We never stopped running.
“There was no attitude after a mistake, no frustration, no waving, no eyeballing, no bad words. It was just a team ready to work and put 90 minutes’ effort in.”
It was easy to feel another echo of England’s past and, again, it is one with which Tuchel suggested he was familiar. For years, there has been a tendency among England managers to pick the best 11 players and try to squeeze them into a team, regardless of whether the component parts fit. Call it the Lampard-Gerrard principle.
At Euro 2024, Gareth Southgate was left to conclude that “your best players are your best players” as he tried to accommodate Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden. Lee Carsley would go a step further last October when he started Bellingham, Foden, Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon against Greece in the Nations League and lost 2-1.
A major takeaway from this international window has been Tuchel’s quest for clarity and it has been most evident in how he has sorted his players into very specific positions – right and left centre-halves, for example; 6s, 8s and 10s in midfield. There is room for flexibility, but not too much.
He wants the framework of the team first and it feels as if he will then make either/or choices for the starting roles. What that means in the No 10 position will be particularly interesting because the choices are extensive – Bellingham, Foden, Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze, Morgan Gibbs-White. Can Tuchel be the one to get the tough selection decisions right for the overall good?
“We try to be very clear to the players and have a new start,” he said. “One of the learnings from the previous camp in June was: ‘The players need clarity. What do we play in this camp, how do we play, what is the structure and where do I compete?’
“So we told them and trained them very, very clearly because everyone comes from a different club and a different style. From there, step by step, the intensity increased, the accuracy came and I’m happy it all clicked against Serbia.”
