‘Embrace the chaos’: Tuchel aims to harness England’s football culture

Thomas Tuchel has admitted there are times when he craves greater control in matches. But the England head coach feels the more chaotic, adrenaline-fuelled nature of the Premier League will remain his template as he targets glory at Euro 2028.

Tuchel described his team as “maybe not the most economical to play football” in terms of their habit of constantly playing at full throttle. They lost to Argentina in the World Cup semi-final in July when they had nothing left in the tank and watched the game slip away after going 1-0 up in the 55th minute. England barely touched the ball thereafter, had no control and were reeled in, Argentina winning with two late goals.

Tuchel said he would like it if his team “became for 10 minutes more like Spain” when the pressure was on – a reference to the ability of the world champions to dominate the ball; their comfort on it. Ultimately, though, Tuchel will always play to the strengths of his players, what they are used to, what they have grown up with – even what the fans in England most like.

It may be an internal battle for him because he is a coach who finds a lack of control “hard to digest”. But as Tuchel looked ahead to the next international cycle and the Nations League games against Spain (home), Czechia (home and away) and Croatia (away), he talked of how he wanted to “embrace the chaos”.

“I’m just wrestling with myself,” he said. “Even if you control matches in the Premier League, how many English players are there in these teams that really try to control matches? Is this in our DNA? Do we really value control? Is this something that comes easy to us? Or do we go: ‘Yeah, but we’re stuck in midfield, we should go, we should attack.’

“I’ve seen [England] training sessions on the very highest level of my career … with a lot of speed and ball speed, physicality, dribbling. So it makes me just struggle … how and when [to seek control]. Because we’re talking about the highest-pressure moments, the semi-final against Argentina, 80% of the stadium is Argentinian. So now can you please become Spain for 15 minutes …”

Tuchel was asked whether his team’s attempt to dig in grimly and preserve the 1-0 lead against Argentina was a result of their lack of control. “I would say yes,” he replied. “But I would still say it [controlling football] is not how English fans cherish a match. I don’t think that an English supporter goes to a Premier League match and wants to see a controlled match and 1-0 late on. OK, win always. But it comes with international players playing for the teams that are more open to that.

“Deep down, in the core, English players and the spectators – and this is a beautiful thing – they go for it. They say: ‘Let’s play [for] 6-3 or 4-3. Let’s not play 1-0. We want to put the ball up front.’ There was the famous kick-and-rush in earlier times. There is no heritage of: ‘Oh, let’s control around the middle line. Let’s do a deep buildup and then bring them out.’ It’s just like: ‘Come on. Let’s kick the ball into the opponent’s box and fight with them.’

“Now that I have a tournament as an experience, I feel that this team is ready to fight, is always ready to go. This is the beauty of it. That come the high-pressure moments where we can play better football, where we maybe lack even a little bit of courage or this energy … maybe it’s more going down that route.”

It was put to Tuchel that he ought to be able to finesse his gameplan to include spells where the team could retain the ball against elite-level opposition because England have polished players. He said he did not “have the time to coach them” like this. The way Tuchel sees it, he has come into a specific football culture. It is not on him to change it, rather to work with what he has – including the numerous positive traits. Tuchel is not about to push a different game model. “No,” he said. “I know I don’t [do that]. I think it will not suit the characteristics of our players.”

Tuchel said he had “mixed” feelings about the World Cup because of the Argentina defeat. He also accepted that his team could have played better across the piece. But he will not allow the second half against Argentina to override the positives and how, after the win over France in the third-place playoff, it added up to England’s best tournament finish since 1966.

“I have never said it was a big success,” Tuchel said. “I said there were a lot of positives. It was unfulfilled. But why is the expectation so high? When did we last win it? When did we ever win it? Why is the expectation so high that even bringing home a [bronze] medal cannot be acknowledged?”