WORLD CUP ETC - FEATURE: Tuchel's Conundrum

Declan Link takes a look at the difficulty in the moment for England coach Thomas Tuchel, as the final international window before the World Cup plays out. 

Transcript

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Hello, hello, Declan Link here reporting from very close to Wembley the day before the big game against Japan at Wembley Stadium tomorrow night, a few days after the very boring blar game against Uruguay at Wembley Stadium. The big question in my mind tonight is does Thomas Tuchel's team, England, have an identity at this stage in the same way that Uruguay on Friday night, with Bielsa being under so much pressure, uh he had the pressure of potentially losing his job if they were smashed like the USA did to them at the end of last year. Um the Uruguayans obviously had somewhat of an identity, one because of the way the Uruguayans have historically played football, the way that they rallied around the manager Bielsa on Friday night, and the way that they obviously played a highly defensive but quite aggressive game in defending their defensive third and periodically, not very often, went forward. Some of the variables that Thomas Touchal is trying to juggle as he builds up to the World Cup tournament at this stage in the uh spring friendlies are in my opinion, he has pressure on him to give as many of the players in the pool a chance to prove their case, effectively audition to reserve a place on the plane. And obviously it's a matter of personal opinion whether or not any or many of them did that on Friday night. He also wants to see who is in form and who might be showing the signs of playing themselves into form so that by the time June comes around, that person is going to be firing on all cylinders, either being a defender, a midfield player, or obviously in a forward, knocking the back in the back of the goal. He has to deal with the club pressures because there's certain players in some of the top teams who are obviously in the so-called red zone currently, and some are showing signs of burnout, and uh they want to make sure that they have a good working, he has a good working relationship with all of the managers of the uh Premier League clubs and all the international club uh clubs that uh England players are playing on now. Then he has his own internal pressure, and that is to become a tactically flexible team that ultimately is more situational than a system lock team because that's classic Thomas Tugel, what he's done at Bayern Munich, and what he's done with Chelsea. First and foremost, I think Thomas Tugel is looking for what I would call defensive compactness. And what I mean by that is ultimately you a strong team has a strong defense, and he proved through the qualifying campaign that a lot of the games were hardly exciting, hardly riveting, you weren't sitting on the edge of your seats, but with their record of all the games won, very few goals conceded, etc. etc. And then that one standout game against Serbia away, that it almost seems as though he has a master plan, and that was for the tournament qualification period. And you'd like to think he has a master plan in the build-up to the tournament, the World Cup, and then obviously as the World Cup tournament takes place. My conclusion is that he's probably having sleepless nights at the moment because he he hasn't actually identified who would be the three or four, four or three defenders at the back, and he's still in like information gathering mode, trying to find out individually and collectively which one of the defenders or which group of defenders are going to play together in the tournament in the specific positions, be it a four at the back or a three at the back. So that's one of his dilemmas at the moment. This so-called data collection stage can be a bit frustrating for everyone regarding the coaches, the players, definitely the fans. Because at the at the end of the day, the data collection is he's running out of time, he's running against the clock. You know, who under when the in it with these different formations, these different players, a B team, a C team, the top players that are mostly going to be out there tomorrow night against Japan. He's trying to figure out who understands instructions quickly, on the fly, who adapts to different situations in in games, in mid-game, early on, and definitely towards the end, who maintains p uh positional discipline. And obviously the experimentation continues to happen, but what that means is a short-term inconsistency rather than going into the tournament with a a settled team and a a good winning record. And it is what it is at the moment. It really is quite fascinating, actually, because it's a race against time. He came in as a coach, as a manager, to have one very clear uh mission to accomplish, which was to win the World Cup. Obviously, things have changed since he got the extension to his contract, but ultimately this is a philosophical shift from Gareth Southgate's England, the old England, where it was more about stability and roles, talent, first selections, uh transition moments, and emotional cohesion. Whereas Tuchel's direction, which again goes very much in line with the way he has always coached and the way he has this reputation of being a coach who's able to make quick, good tactical decisions on the pitch as situations develop, which is why he can back it up with all the trophies he's won. His focus is in fluid roles, system first selection, controlled possession, and ultimately tactical precision. Uruguay did their job on Friday night and and did it very effectively. Uh Bielsa's and the uh players and the uh Uruguay fans should be very pleased for themselves. But obviously, going into the game against uh Japan tomorrow night, I do feel that we have to keep believing in Tukal that he knows what he's doing, and we will see on the back of the Japan-Scotland game, the Scotland-Japan game, that actually that's going to be a much more open game than the highly defensive strategy that Uruguay employed Friday night. So again, I think uh we'll leave you with these thoughts, or I'll leave you with these thoughts that uh let's see what happens tomorrow night, because I know some of the uh Saka and Declan Rice and a couple of the other so-called starters in the uh top squad can't play, but we definitely have a lot more recognized players coming. So I'm actually looking forward on the back of uh Friday night, which was pretty boring, a much more exciting game tomorrow night. We'll be back with you soon. Thank you.