England manager Thomas Tuchel has acknowledged his team were “frozen” during their surprising 3-1 friendly loss to Senegal but insisted there’s no reason for alarm with the World Cup still a year away.
The Three Lions took an early lead at the City Ground in Nottingham, with captain Harry Kane slotting in a close-range finish in the seventh minute.
However, the match quickly turned against them as goals from Ismaïla Sarr, Habib Diarra, and substitute Cheikh Sabaly helped Senegal make history as the first African nation to defeat England in a senior men’s fixture.
Tuchel opted to rotate his squad significantly, making 10 changes from the side that narrowly edged Andorra 1-0 last weekend.
Despite a late push that saw Jude Bellingham find the net, only for VAR to rule it out due to a handball by Levi Colwill—England were booed off the pitch for a second straight game.
Reflecting on his first loss as England boss after three consecutive World Cup qualifying wins, Tuchel said,”I’m not sure if we did not deserve a little bit more result-wise. It felt a bit frozen, not active enough for a long time over the match.
“[But] we lost a test match so there is no need to panic. We have [played] three qualification games, we have nine points and not conceded. We will be competitive in September, and we will go for two more victories — 100% we will.
“We know more now, we are smarter. It’s tough at the moment. I am the first one to dislike and hate losses like nothing else.
“But it’s not next week. We don’t go next week to the World Cup we go in one year.
“I think by nature it will get more competitive in the nomination process and in the demands for the players to be nominated and to be with us in September, October and November because of the density, because we enter then a World Cup season. I think this comes by nature and from there we go.”
Tuchel’s comments come in the wake of mounting scrutiny over England’s lack of fluency, particularly after a disjointed showing against Andorra.
These performances have reignited debates over whether certain players struggle to replicate club form on the international stage.
Taking over from Gareth Southgate, who led England to impressive finishes at major tournaments, including two European Championship finals and a World Cup semifinal, Tuchel admitted the bar has been set high.
“Expectations come naturally with results and the success that Gareth had with the group and with England. I think it was regular in quarterfinals, semifinals, finals. It comes with it.”
He also touched on the psychological challenge of maintaining hunger and urgency, especially when opponents are more fired up to face England.
“You feel how opponents approach matches against us, what it means to beat us and to compete with us. I heard it because my changing room was next to the dressing room of Senegal. I just asked myself, ‘would we have celebrated in the same manner?’
“And I ask myself, ‘would I have been the first in the dressing room screaming and knocking my fist on some boxes?’ Would the players then have joined or just said ‘what’s wrong with the gaffer? It is just a friendly match, he needs to calm down.’
“OK, I exaggerate a little bit but I include myself. I don’t think my players would be so happy and so excited about it, and not because they are not, but maybe because they demand it from themselves. Maybe the latest history brings with it that they think everything is normal, we need to win, we need to win in style and we need to win comfortably, we need to beat everyone and it needs to look easy, we need to be exciting and everything mixed together feels a little bit like it holds us down because I see the smile, I see the liveliness in training.
“I tell you pretty much all the time that I am excited by what I see and I have a strong belief in what we can do. But we miss at the moment, the translation to the pitch. There is another detail into it from my point of view on the sideline — I need to review it — but we had our best and most exciting and most lively phase after we were 2-1 down.
“That just shows me that maybe for some players it was like ‘OK, nothing to lose anymore, nothing to hold onto.’ Suddenly we found gaps, and turns, one-on-ones we could win offensively, go through gaps and have runs and shots,” Tuchel stressed.
With the World Cup still a year away, Tuchel remains confident his squad will rise to the challenge in time—despite the warning signs. England now look ahead to their next set of qualification fixtures in September, aiming to restore form and belief.
