Thomas Tuchel believes England were given a wake-up call by Croatia and must focus on improving their defensive structure as the World Cup progresses.<\/p>\n
England will qualify for the knockout stages from Group L with a game to spare if they beat Ghana<\/a> in Boston on Tuesday night, and will top the group if Panama then fail to beat Croatia in the later game, but Tuchel is determined not to take \u00adanything for granted. The head coach has placed a heavy emphasis on aggressive football and has said his side were too quick to fall back during the first half of the 4-2 win over Croatia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tuchel, who regained momentum with a stirring half-time team talk at Dallas Stadium, gave an in\u2011depth assessment of where his side went wrong during a chaotic opening period. The German felt the shape was wrong before Croatia scored their second equaliser moments before half time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to do things \u00adbetter,\u201d he said. \u201cDefensively we dropped a little too deep from a middle block into a low block and deep block, which is in itself not a problem, but we went a bit too early. We were a bit too man-man focused and didn\u2019t rely enough on our structure to be able to push out again.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you just look at our goal that we conceded we played a back seven formation, which is just not us. Maybe it is good that we conceded, because it just tells us: \u2018Let\u2019s not do this again.\u2019 It makes no sense, it\u2019s not us, it doesn\u2019t play to our strengths. We had too many easy ball losses after ball wins, so we had a huge effort against the ball, win the ball, gave it back straight away.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to manage these ball wins better and in ball possession there is also stuff to improve. When do we accelerate the game, and how do we give the man on the ball more options in the gaps and show a bit more confidence into what makes us strong? That\u2019s the beauty of it: we don\u2019t need to invent anything new.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I was also very clear to the team: we deserved this win. We had a well-deserved win. And we have a lot of positives to take away, and I expect a very different team and a very different setup now. We need to improve especially our structure with the ball to be ready to defend counterattacks before they become dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n England hit an impressive level during the second half against Croatia and Tuchel is keen to keep standards high. \u201cThat is a tricky part, to keep the level up,\u201d he said. \u201cBut first of all I am very happy because we found an answer to adversity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe conceded in a very tricky moment, last shot of the first half and then came up with the best 25 minutes, or best 30 minutes, as an answer when. The team knows that. We saw the physical input, we saw the ball wins, we saw the chances and we still have stuff to improve.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to learn from all that and the beautiful thing is that the things that were not so good we do not need to amend anything new. We just need to do our stuff better from the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuchel has been delighted with England\u2019s attitude before facing Ghana. \u201cThe players keep themselves on edge,\u201d he said. \u201cThe guys who did not get the minutes from the beginning are pushing but we try to make sure in training exercises that everyone is pushing. That is why I love the team anyway. At the moment I cannot see any signs of complacency.\u201d<\/p>\n Reece James will hope to start again at right-back against Ghana on Wednesday. Photograph: Dave Shopland\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n