England: Thomas Tuchel takes a swipe at his players

Europe Today at 05:20

Joshua SOSSOU

News Editor

06.06.26 FT Friendly International

England

1

:

New Zealand

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With just four days to go before the kick-off of the 2026 World Cup, England claimed an unconvincing 1-0 win over New Zealand in their warm-up match, thanks to a goal from Harry Kane. But Thomas Tuchel was far from impressed.

With a heavily rotated squad and several regulars rested, England tried to manage playing time and maintain freshness in challenging conditions in Florida. However, the overall performance clearly frustrated Thomas Tuchel.

"I'm not completely satisfied. I preferred the second half to the first. We played better, respected our positions, kept a higher tempo, and our off-the-ball movement was more incisive. In the first half, our positioning was poor. Our play was too messy, a bit too freestyle. We attempted a lot of crosses and long-range shots in the first half, which isn't our usual style. We played long balls, long passes, which wasn't part of our training over the last four days... That slowed down our game and made counter-pressing difficult, because we weren't in the positions we wanted to be in when attacking," complained the England manager.

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