Thomas Tuchel says he held a meeting with England players on Sunday night to clear the air after the contested fallout from the Norway quarter-final.
The aftermath of England’s 2-1 win in Miami was dominated by Tuchel’s criticism of the performance, and Jude Bellingham’s sharp riposte. But with England facing Argentina in the semi-final on Wednesday, Tuchel wanted to draw a clear line underneath the Norway game and move on with full focus to Argentina.
Tuchel was keen before the semi-final to emphasise that he had “no problem” with Bellingham’s post-match comments, and to say that he and Bellingham see things in the same way. “I think we come from the same place,” Tuchel said. “Our comments come from the same place from being competitive and having the edge when competition is on.”
But after Bellingham’s remarks, when he said that his manager could not understand what it was like to play in the heat and humidity against Norway, Tuchel was keen to re-emphasise a positive message to the squad and re-focus minds onto Wednesday. Tuchel’s criticisms of elements of the performance on Saturday were also mixed with praise for the mentality and effort that they showed.
“I spoke to the whole team, we debriefed,” Tuchel said. “I spoke to the whole team after in the dressing room, which was basically the same message.”
Tuchel later said to talkSPORT that he and Bellingham are now “more close than ever before” following the events of the last few days.
The England head coach again defended Bellingham, putting the situation down to “people try(ing) to create misunderstandings and cracks where no cracks are”, given how exhausted Bellingham was on Saturday night when he conducted his post-match media duties.
“What do you expect of a player that just gave everything and stands there in front of a microphone in a flash interview?,” Tuchel said. “It’s just what it is but we’re as close as ever, and close more than ever before. You can see that on the field. The energy and mentality in camp is excellent in the last days and we are ready to go for it tomorrow.”
England landed back in Kansas City late on Saturday night, and at the end of a recovery day on Sunday, Tuchel wanted to move on from thoughts of Norway and turn towards Argentina.
“I explained it again on Sunday evening to just move on forward,” Tuchel said. “And then we straight away in the talk put on a new direction, put on a new head: which is the semi-final and Argentina.”
Tuchel put Bellingham’s comments on Saturday night in the context of his physical exhaustion, and reiterated the positive aspects of his post-match messaging.
“(Bellingham) was just confronted with the negative side, often with a critique of my side,” Tuchel said of the midfielder’s post-match comments. “I called him a world-class player, I said he had world-class actions again to decide the match. I said the mentality is outstanding of this team. All of that was not part of the question. I get it.”
Tuchel felt that Bellingham simply had an instinctive response to being asked about the negative elements of his own post-match comments. “So Bellingham was confronted with, ‘What do you think, the coach said you were sloppy?’. Of course, I would maybe also bite back when I come from 120 minutes, scored two goals, gave literally everything that is in my body. It’s just a very normal thing, a very normal reaction for a player of his mindset.”
Tuchel also praised Bellingham for the Real Madrid man’s performance against Norway (Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Tuchel added that semi-final opponents Argentina are “fuelled by history”, but said that England can play with emotion too.
“They have this kind of edge,” Tuchel said. “You can sense it when they’re going a goal down, and when matches are tight. They’re a tough team to beat.
“They’re almost the same group as four years ago. You can see the cohesion, you can see the sacrifice that they put into it. They don’t panic when they’re behind. They believe in their style. And their style is a very emotional style. It was in Qatar and it is now.
“And of course, they are fuelled by history, it means a lot to them. But we are also emotional, we have the grit, we have the mentality that it takes to go up against it. And we are ready for it.”
