Tuchel blames England’s Spain defeat on dangerous mistakes in possession
Tuchel insists England’s defence is not the problem
Thomas Tuchel has rejected concerns about England’s defensive organisation after the Three Lions conceded three times in a 3-2 defeat to Spain at Wembley.
England have now conceded nine goals across their last three internationals against Argentina, France and Spain, having previously completed their World Cup qualifying campaign without conceding.
Despite that record, Tuchel said the central issue against Spain was England’s use of the ball, particularly during the early stages of their build-up.
“Strangely enough, when we had the ball, we were the biggest danger to ourselves around the box because we just had too many individual mistakes,” Tuchel said.
Spain took advantage of those errors, with goals from Lamine Yamal, Alex Baena and Mikel Oyarzabal securing victory for the reigning world and European champions.
‘Purely in defending, I have no concerns’
Tuchel maintained that England’s block defending, organisation and work within their defensive units represented an improvement on several previous performances.
“If you want to look at it in isolation on how we did within the structure and in the units of the sides, I was quite happy and I think it was a step ahead,” he said.
“We suffered clearly from individual mistakes when we had the ball, especially in the deep build-up, so that is of course something we cannot repeat. Not at this level.”
The defeat followed criticism of Tuchel’s tactics during England’s World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina, when his decision to protect a one-goal lead prompted questions about the team’s identity and approach to possession.
Tuchel sees positives despite late setback
The England manager argued that his players demonstrated courage and a clear style against Spain, claiming they had the visitors close to defeat and continued attacking after taking the lead.
“We had the world and European champions on the edge of a defeat,” Tuchel said. “In the decisive moments we played our best football. We kept attacking when we were a goal ahead.”
He acknowledged that England were partly responsible for the loss of momentum late in the match, but said the performance offered encouragement ahead of the Nations League meeting with the Czech Republic.
England face the Czech Republic away on Tuesday, followed by an away match against Croatia on October 3 and a home fixture against the Czech Republic on October 6.