Thomas Tuchel defends Kyle Walker after England lose to Senegal – and urges fans not to panic | OneFootball

England head coach Thomas Tuchel has vowed that things will get better after falling to a 3-1 friendly defeat to Senegal at the City Ground.

Harry Kane had given the Three Lions an early lead but goals from Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra and Cheikh Sabaly condemned Tuchel to his first defeat since taking over from Gareth Southgate.

And while Tuchel did not hide his disappointment, having also scraped past Andorra 1-0 on Saturday, he believes there will be plenty of improvement ahead of the World Cup.

“There is no need to panic,” he said.

“We have three qualification games, we have nine points and we haven’t conceded.

“We will be competitive. We’ll be competitive in September and we’ll go for two more victories.

“We know more now. We are smarter. It is tough at the moment. I’m the first one to dislike and hate losses like nothing else but it’s not next week. We don’t go next week to the World Cup, we go in one year.

“I think by nature it will get more competitive, in the nomination process and in the demands for the players to be nominated (for the squad) and to be with us in September, October, November because of the density, because we enter a World Cup season.

“I think this comes by nature and from there we go.”

Manchester City defender Kyle Walker, who spent the second half of last season on loan at AC Milan, started the game but was at fault for the first goal when he failed to track Sarr’s run.

But Tuchel defended the decision to play him and insists he has a future with England..

“Kyle, what he did in the first camp, he played two strong matches for us,” he said. “Both matches were good. He was a regular player at AC Milan and then he broke his elbow.

“He came back very early and is struggling to get the rhythm. Once we saw him in camp, he trained at the highest level. I felt he was very composed and very proud to be in camp. He took responsibility, he helped everyone out and pushed the standards and the level.

“I think he deserved to play.”

Tuchel admits Walker is not at his best, however, but says it is important he gets minutes for England, with his future at Man City still unclear.

He added: “I see the lack of rhythm clearly, the lack of rhythm in misjudgements, in duels, and in anticipation. Of course I see that and that is maybe also the nature of a June camp and of a player that has not played every minute in his legs lately and in the last matches because of injury and struggling to come back, with the contract situation, that he was just on loan.

“But we cannot make our judgment based on a decision in the future, whether Man City takes him to the Club World Cup or not.”