‘Why should I sugarcoat it?’ – Tuchel urges England players to step up | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel admits he is “impatient” to see improvement from his England side.

England’s last outing saw them pick up an unconvincing 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Andorra, after which the Three Lions boss said he was disappointed with the attitude of his team.

Reflecting on those comments, Tuchel said: “I protect my players, I said no names of players, it is not an individual matter.

“But as I said, as a team we did not reach our standards and I did not like the last 20 minutes. I felt we didn’t play seriously enough in what we needed to do in a World Cup qualifier.

“What I have told you I have already told the team directly. Why should we sugarcoat it? You have been in the stadium, why should I tell you that we had a good game? No harm done. We can handle criticism.

“I have always strongly believed that a group of football players can speak honestly to each other, I include myself. Now it’s on us to do better.

“The attitude towards training and in camp, the commitment from the players, was outstanding. Everybody wanted to be there, to be involved and to play in this game. We take our analysis from this and try to do better of course.”

Tuchel has won all of his three games in charge and will be looking to make it four from four when England face Senegal on Tuesday.

But the England head coach says he wants to see improvements from his team.

“I’m very impatient, which is not always a good thing,” he said. “I’m always impatient because you step out into a stadium even if the fixture is not always that exciting, after a season fighting for titles, Champions League places.

“But for me personally once I step into a good stadium, see the grass, see 7,000 supporters, I’m expecting something from myself and the players.

“It will be to see tomorrow, I am impatient and I want to do better. We are thinking of giving the players a little more freedom within the structure. I still think it was a very offensive structure and line-up to break the defence down.

“Tomorrow we face a strong and physically demanding team, but at first we might not be so offensive but give the players more freedom to express themselves. Maybe on Tuesday we will see the next step.”