{"id":487870,"date":"2026-06-21T03:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/487870\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T03:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:00:08","slug":"england-offer-rare-peek-behind-the-curtain-with-no-place-to-hide-under-tuchel-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/487870\/","title":{"rendered":"England offer rare peek behind the curtain with no place to hide under Tuchel | England"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tall hooded figure kept barking instructions under a hot Missouri sun. Thomas Tuchel<\/a> was looking for perfection as preparations for Ghana geared up. England\u2019s head coach watched from a distance at first but it was not long before he was making sure the training drill was up his standards.<\/p>\n

Tuchel, wearing a hoodie to protect himself from the UV rays, loomed over a group made up of Elliot Anderson, Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon, Marcus Rashford, Djed Spence and Ollie Watkins. This was a rare peek behind the curtain. At international tournaments there are days when journalists are allowed to watch 15 minutes of open training. They are often anodyne experiences, limited to a bit of jogging around, maybe a glimpse of a rondo if you\u2019re lucky, but there was more insight at England\u2019s base in Kansas City on Saturday morning. Mannequins were carefully arranged in four zones and it soon became clear there is no hiding place when Tuchel is watching.<\/p>\n

The German is a perfectionist who has been known to measure the height of the grass used at training. \u201cIf he sees something that he doesn\u2019t like he calls it out,\u201d Dan Burn said when he spoke to the media later in the day. The honesty is refreshing, the clarity welcome. On this occasion the focus seemed to be on England accelerating the play and moving through the lines. The players were passing through the mannequins. They could only take two touches. They needed to go through the middle at first, work on enticing the press and give and go before turning out to shifting the ball wide, but Tuchel was quick to move over when he spotted one group in need of some advice.<\/p>\n

Tuchel is big on players controlling the ball with the correct foot in training. He wants everyone to know the favoured foot of every teammate on the pitch. It sounds logical. It speeds up the play and when Tuchel wandered over to Anderson, Bellingham, Spence, Gordon and Rashford it was possible to see the intensity go up.<\/p>\n

Holding a whistle in his right hand, Tuchel was loudly telling players which foot to use to control passes. There was a moment when he zoned in on Spence, telling the full-back to wake up. \u201cOpen up,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been five minutes already, Djed. Come on!\u201d<\/p>\n

The cajoling was relentless and the level went up. England were pushing it in the heat and the mind went back to the first half of their opening game against Croatia<\/a> last Wednesday. The roof was shut at the Dallas Stadium and England struggled to beat the press during the first half. They played themselves into trouble and twice lost the lead, only to blow Croatia away with an astonishing burst of attacking football after half-time.<\/p>\n

Thomas Tuchel was loudly telling players which foot to use to control passes. Photograph: Bradley Collyer\/PA<\/p>\n

The aim is to play like a Premier League side: with speed, intensity and physicality. Historically, though, England have struggled with teams pressing them high. It comes down to technique. Tuchel makes it sound easy. If a left-footer receives the ball on their correct foot it makes it easier to open up the body, pass beyond an opponent, get England on the attack and use the pace of their forward players.<\/p>\n

No wonder England\u2019s players talk about how much they learn from Tuchel. The buy-in is total, although there is room for levity. There is basketball on offer at the team hotel. Backgammon has been on the agenda and Burn has been trying to work out how to play Wolf, a long-running card game inside the camp. \u201cI\u2019ve been watching a few of them before getting in there, trying to work out who the best liars are,\u201d the big Newcastle defender said.<\/p>\n

Dan Burn, Harry Kane, Djed Spence and Thomas Tuchel with Kansas City Royals mascot Sluggerrr and manager Matt Quatraro. England players attended the Major League Baseball match against the St Louis Cardinals earlier this week. Photograph: Eddie Keogh\/The FA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The players had a day off on Friday. Harry Kane and Jason Steele, the training goalkeeper, joined Burn at an Ella Langley gig. \u201cI like country music, so I had a cowboy hat on and cowboy boots,\u201d Burn said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to do it, do it properly. Ella is an amazing country artist, so it was nice that we get to do those things. Then today it\u2019s focused back on football.\u201d<\/p>\n

The demands are high. While Tuchel watched the passing drill his No 2 threw himself into the action. Anthony Barry pressed and was also blasting out a stream of instructions. It was Barry who did the half-time interview with ITV and delivered a searing critique of England\u2019s first 45 minutes against Croatia. The Liverpudlian did not hold back, saying there was a nervous energy from the team.<\/p>\n

Burn, who first came across Barry when the 40-year-old was cutting his teeth as a young coach at Wigan Athletic, was not surprised. \u201cThere\u2019s no grey areas with Baz and the manager,\u201d he said. \u201cThe one thing that I really do like about them is that they just say it how there is. They\u2019re not going to beat around the bush. That\u2019s all you want as a player. You just want that honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

England have it with Tuchel and Barry\u2019s double act. The players will hear about it whenever they dare to slow down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tall hooded figure kept barking instructions under a hot Missouri sun. Thomas Tuchel was looking for perfection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-487870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}