LONDON — Thomas Tuchel said that England were “not disciplined enough” in their team structure during their scrappy 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Albania at Wembley Stadium on Friday.
The game marked Tuchel’s first in charge since he officially began in the role in January and the 51-year-old has expressed a preference for a high-intensity style that the majority of his players are used to experiencing in the Premier League.
Friday’s victory, secured via a debut goal from Myles Lewis-Skelly and a late strike by Harry Kane, showed occasional glimpses of Tuchel’s vision for the team, but a somewhat drab second-half performance left a little to be desired.
“We wanted to increase the rhythm and the risk a little bit in the second half,” Tuchel told a post-match news conference.
“[We] had even one player more in the offensive line, but I felt us not disciplined enough in the structure anymore and we tried a little bit too much alone and we tried a little bit too much out of position and slowed our game down.
“We were not so well organised to control the counterattacks. Later with the second goal, the game was over and we could see it out.”
Tuchel found space in his starting lineup for Phil Foden — a player who has frequently been criticised for not performing at the same levels for his country as he has for Manchester City. But Foden struggled to have much impact on proceedings and was replaced by Jarrod Bowen in the 74th minute.
“We will encourage him to do what he does best — to go [at] defenders, to go into dribbling,” Tuchel said.
“We played him today from the right wing. I think both of our wingers who started were not as impactful as they normally can be as they are normally in club football. I’m at the moment not so sure why we struggled to bring the ball quicker to them, to bring the ball in a more open position to them. I need to review the match so I’m not so sure why it took so long.”
The new England boss also said that he fears Newcastle United winger Anthony Gordon suffered a serious hip injury after he was introduced off the bench with 15 minutes remaining.
“He looks injured, he looks injured,” Tuchel said. “He had, first of all I thought it’s his stomach but it’s his hip and it does not look good. Yeah, it’s a bit worrying.”
England face Andorra in the next match of their World Cup qualifying campaign on Monday.