{"id":720824,"date":"2026-06-07T10:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720824\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:27:16","slug":"thomas-tuchel-criticises-englands-freestyle-approach-in-win-over-new-zealand-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/720824\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel criticises England\u2019s \u2018freestyle\u2019 approach in win over New Zealand | England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Tuchel was unhappy with England\u2019s \u201cfreestyle\u201d performance in the first half of their 1-0 win over New Zealand<\/a> but the head coach was pleased with Jude Bellingham\u2019s impact as a substitute in Tampa.<\/p>\n

Harry Kane\u2019s goal just before half-time was the difference in a forgettable encounter at Raymond James Stadium and there was plenty for Tuchel to ponder after his side failed to capture the imagination in their penultimate warm-up game before the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m OK with it,\u201d was the German\u2019s forthright assessment of England\u2019s display. \u201cI\u2019m not super-happy about it. I like the second half more than the first half. We played more from our positions and that\u2019s why we played with more speed and off the ball we played with a bit more bite. The first half we were out of positions and it was a bit too much freestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat slowed our game down and made it difficult for the counterpress because we were not in the positions that we wanted to be when we started attacking. That\u2019s basically the story of the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuchel explained that his \u201cfreestyling\u201d comment mainly related to positional awareness. \u201cWe were lacking width so players were coming inside and narrowing ourselves down and slowing ourselves down and changing positions for too long,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were taking crosses, a lot of long-range shots, normally not our style of play. We played a lot of long balls, we played a lot of long passes. That was not part of training in the last four days.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were other factors behind England\u2019s lack of flow. They fielded different XIs in each half, the pitch was awkward and the heat was difficult to master. \u201cWe had one training in the sun and now this match felt really, really odd,\u201d Tuchel said. \u201cBut it\u2019s good that we\u2019re exposed because that\u2019s why we\u2019re here. We wanted it that way and we need to get used to it because it will come at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jude Bellingham unleashes a shot during England\u2019s win over New Zealand. Photograph: David Buono\/Action Plus\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Bellingham was handed the captain\u2019s armband after replacing Morgan Rogers at half-time and the Real Madrid midfielder pressed his case to start in the No 10 role when England open their campaign against Croatia on 17 June.<\/p>\n

\u201cJude has the decisiveness and he has the bite,\u201d Tuchel said. \u201cThis is a key characteristic. You can see that he comes back from an injury and is full of energy and happy to be back on the pitch. He had his break, unfortunately, in a decisive part of the season. But you can see now that he is actually in a sweet spot. He comes back, he\u2019s fresh, he wants to play and he\u2019s in top shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kane\u2019s 79th goal for England, who head to Orlando to face Costa Rica in their final warm-up game on Wednesday, underlined the captain\u2019s importance to the side. \u201cHe\u2019s always there to score,\u201d Tuchel said. \u201cIt\u2019s a decisive goal. Harry is in top shape and I think that when the pressure comes and the tournament starts, that will bring the best out of all our players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying for England is my favourite thing to do,\u201d Kane said afterwards. \u201cI wear the shirt with immense pride, I wear the armband with immense pride, trying to set the right example for my team-mates, the staff, but also the fans and the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to lead another group of guys into another World Cup is obviously a special feeling,\u201d Kane added. \u201cWe go into it with high expectations \u2026 I feel as good as I\u2019ve ever felt and it can\u2019t come soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Tuchel was unhappy with England\u2019s \u201cfreestyle\u201d performance in the first half of their 1-0 win over New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-720824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}