England: ‘Arrogant’ Tuchel slammed over White decision as Arsenal star lacks ‘decency’ | OneFootball

England boss Thomas Tuchel has been labelled “arrogant” for his team selection against Uruguay and has been criticised for recalling Ben White.

The Three Lions are finalising their preparations for the World Cup and drew 1-1 against Uruguay in a friendly at Wembley on Friday night.

Head coach Tuchel named a makeshift team for this match, having allowed plenty of England’s fringe players to impress against Uruguay.

However, most of England’s stand-ins struggled as they laboured to a dull 1-1 draw, with the return of Arsenal star White hogging the headlines after the match.

This was his first England appearance since stepping away before the 2022 World Cup over a conflict with former assistant Steve Holland, and White was booed by a portion of home supporters when he was brought on.

White also scored and conceded a penalty, while Tuchel said after the game that he was “disappointed” with the crowd reaction.

Now, talkSPORT presenter Adrian Durham has hit out at Tuchel’s “arrogant” decisions against Uruguay, while he failed to “read the room” with the White situation.

“You’re asking football fans to pay a hefty ticket price to go and watch a team full of players, many of whom won’t be in the World Cup squad,” Durham told talkSPORT.

“For me it was the height of arrogance from England to think that they’ve got a friendly a couple of months out from the World Cup and Thomas Tuchel, the manager, can say to the senior players, to the best 11, ‘You don’t need to play in this one, we’ll be OK, we’ll be fine for the World Cup if you don’t practice together.’

“Do you really think that, mate? I’m not sure that’s true.

“And on the Ben White thing, he’s completely not read the room. What Thomas Tuchel needs to do is understand England fans better, and I thought he would have done by now.

“He’s got a lot of positives, Thomas Tuchel, but this is a definite negative and it’s really counting against him.”

Regarding White, Durham argued that the defender has lacked “decency” over his England situation.

“Last October when we played Wales, he had a go at the England crowd at Wembley for not producing an atmosphere, and then he picks Ben White,” Durham added.

“What does he think is gonna happen? Ben White’s gonna be booed. This is a guy who walked out on his teammates, he walked out on a World Cup squad, and we still don’t know (why).

“Nobody’s had decency, Ben White hasn’t come forward to tell the paying England fans who pay a fortune, by the way, to go worldwide to support their country and to back their players.

“Nobody has told those fans why that happened and then he just waltzes straight back in. What did Thomas Tuchel think was gonna happen?”