Thomas Tuchel, who sparked a furor last month by criticizing “silent” England fans during the 3-0 win over Wales, is expected to return to Wembley on Thursday night.
Thomas Tuchel slammed the lack of support from the Wembley crowd but insisted he had no regrets. Three Lions manager Tuchel criticized England fans for being too quiet during last month’s friendly against Wales.
England fans hit back at Tuchel during the following win against Serbia, chanting “sing when you want to”. Tuchel will face a Wembley crowd for the first time since making those comments when England play Serbia again on Thursday night, but the former Chelsea boss insists he has nothing but respect for the fans, but refuses to be a fish to the flow.
England have already qualified for the World Cup and Tuchel admitted it was the team’s responsibility to entertain the crowd after Thursday’s game was a complete failure. “Of course we want the atmosphere to be like Boca vs. River Plate, but there won’t be the same tension in the dressing room before the game. This is not the World Cup.”
“This is not a semi-final or the first group match and the crowd knows that. We accept that it will be a different game than before, but we still try to inspire and inspire them and show them it’s a great watch.”
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“Do I regret what I said? No, it was a genuine reaction. If you live your life and only say what people want to hear, you become a fish. I’m not a fish. Did some people not like that? Okay. Sometimes I don’t like what people say about me, but it is what it is.”
After the team’s 3-0 win over Wales on October 9, manager Tuchel caused a stir with some frank comments. The Three Lions took a three-goal lead within 20 minutes at Wembley and the game was tied.
Speaking afterwards to ITV Sport, he said: “We had a day and a half of training to play against a well-drilled team and we did very well. At half-time we could have been 5-0 up. We couldn’t score the fourth and fifth goals. The stadium was silent and there was no energy coming back from the stands. We did everything we could to win.”
Asked if he expected more from the fans, Tuchel added: “Yes, what more could we have done in 20 minutes? We didn’t let them go. If for half an hour you only hear from the Wales fans, that’s sad, because the team deserved a lot more support today.”
“I loved the support in Serbia and I’m sure we’ll have the best support in Latvia as well, and of course if we go to the World Cup it’ll be great. Even if the game goes a little poorly, they shouldn’t underestimate how much it will help,” he later tried to placate the supporters.
“If they could get things going again, that might help us and then we could probably score and get some energy back. It’s a give-and-take.”
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