Thomas Tuchel didn’t hesitate to demand more from his England side at half-time in the opening World Cup game – including a candid exchange with Jordan Pickford
Thomas Tuchel had a frank message to England players at half-time
England manager Thomas Tuchel has claimed he forgot to read the Riot Act to Jordan Pickford.
Tuchel admitted he sent a blunt message to England’s players, telling them to “try harder” after their defenders scored two goals against Croatia. However, Tuchel engaged in a fierce battle with England’s No. 1 Pickford, struggled to develop from the back, and made tactical mistakes.
In an eye-catching, televised moment, Pickford yelled back at Tuchel that it was only in the second half that he understood their system.
“I don’t know what I said to the pickers. I honestly don’t remember. What we said was that we have to make ourselves better… There’s no need to adjust anything, no new developments, no need to change anything,” Tuchel said.
“We just need to progress with it. On the pass, instead of always going around the block and inviting pressure, go back to the goalie and try to push together more and try to find better gaps. From the middle block to the high press.”
“Basically it was about encouraging and reminding them of what we want to do. The spaces where we want to accelerate the game, where we want to win the ball, they were there and we weren’t completely free. We weren’t at our best level.”
Tuchel said England were too passive at times but praised the way his players adapted and changed their style in the second half. “We went into the deep block too early. From the middle block…we went into the deep block too early.”
Jordan Pickford had a heated conversation with his manager
“Normally it’s not a problem for us to go to the middle block. We have a clear trigger to go into the high press from there. We wanted John Stones to push into the midfield. They blocked John at number nine, so maybe they knew too, or maybe it was a coincidence. It took a while for Elliott Anderson to understand that he could push after that.”
“It took us quite a while, so we lost a little bit of confidence, we didn’t find the right opening, we had a feeling that we had to defend something, and everyone wanted to help and help and help, but in the end we went too deep and were too passive. The second half was much better. We were much more active and aggressive.”
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive Mirror Football content every day. Community members also receive special offers, promotions, and advertisements from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check it out whenever you like. If you are interested, please read our privacy notice.
Upgrade your World Cup TV setup with Sky Glass ‘designed for soccer’
From £4.50
sky
Get the deal here
Sky is marking the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup by reducing prices by 20% on its entire range of glass TVs. Until June 17, shoppers can upgrade to a Sky smart TV ‘designed for football’ from £4.50 a month when taken with a Sky TV and Netflix package.
