Tuchel focuses on England intensity and complacency

Thomas Tuchel says that his players must “love” playing for England rather than just like it, and that he specifically cut the size of squads in order to start fostering a sense of competition.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

The German has clearly been focusing on sharpening intensity and warding off complacency, as his side host Andorra at Villa Park in a World Cup qualifier tomorrow. The last match between the countries ended in a tepid 1-0 win for England in Barcelona in June, where Tuchel admitted that the right energy did not translate from training. He said there had been “learnings” from those camps, and one of them is that the squad needed clearer tactical instructions to foster that edge. A further consequence has been to shorten the numbers called up, with this squad featuring just 25 players.

“It comes down again to ‘does the group have the right energy together’, ‘is the group happy to be with each other’, ‘is the group happy to go and get going’, ‘does the group love to play for England or do they just like to play for England’? This will have a huge impact and we are just ready to be well aware of that.”

Tuchel believes that making a call-up feel more elusive will aid that. Trent Alexander-Arnold was one of the big names to miss out on this camp altogether, as others face a fight to be in on matchday.