There's lots to get better – Thomas Tuchel demands improvement from England

South Wales Guardian

08-06-2025

Boos greeted the half-time and final whistles in Barcelona after the 6,950 travelling fans witnessed a forgettable and frustrating display against the side sat 173rd in FIFA's world rankings.
Only three European nations are placed lower than Andorra, who dug deep and had a couple of half-chances on a night when Harry Kane's 50th-minute goal was the difference as England edged the Group K qualifier 1-0.
Aiming for a better performance on Tuesday 💪
— England (@England) June 8, 2025
The Euro 2024 runners-up 'got away with it' according to Kane and head coach Tuchel was surprised by the team's 'lack of attitude' in the final stages of both halves.
'The last half-an-hour I don't like it all because I think we lacked everything that is needed in a World Cup qualifier,' Tuchel said.
'There's lots to get better. At the moment everything is a learning (period) so we're smarter than before.
'We have the minimum, the points in our pocket, and we will talk about it honestly and directly and try to do it better.'
Put to the England head coach, who wants the side to play Premier League-style football, that Saturday's performance showed Rome was not built in a day, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'Absolutely.
'It is in the moment a learning (period), it's our second camp. I think we can do much better, we have to do much better, all of us, and that includes me, and from there we go.
'In the moment we have nine points and on Tuesday we have a very strong opponent (in Senegal) to do things better.
'It always takes two to tango, but we need to do better and breaking down deep opponents. We played now three times against a 5-4-1, but there are no excuses.
'The lack of counter-pressing and the lack of ball wins and the lack of being aggressive in duels is basic in football.
'If you don't show this, then it becomes more or less a game that we saw, which is not attractive, which does not have the quality that we wish and that we want to show to our supporters, who were absolutely amazing and outstanding, so there's a lot to do and from there we go.'
England returned home from Spain straight after Saturday's game as attention turns to Tuesday's friendly against Senegal at the City Ground in Nottingham.
The Lions of Teranga sit 19th in the world rankings and are comfortably the toughest test Tuchel has faced since taking charge at the start of the year.
The England boss is looking forward to facing Senegal but says the Andorra match cannot be swept under the carpet given the limited opportunities to prepare for next summer's World Cup.
Our best is still to come! Important win away from home, onto the next 🦁🦁🦁 pic.twitter.com/36CKvocvJb
— Harry Kane (@HKane) June 7, 2025
'I don't forget because there's not so many matches,' Tuchel said.
'I think it's necessary that we have a good look at it and then present in detail to the players what we don't like, and to present it in a video session what we have to do better and what are the standards and what we did good.
'It's not a day where we just say, 'OK, we have the result and let's keep on going'. We have not enough time to do this. We have not enough matches to do that.'