Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Arthur Ferridge

Thomas Tuchel reveals the key England 'danger' which led to Spain defeat

Thomas Tuchel said England are their own worst enemies after an error-strewn defensive performance saw them beaten by Spain at Wembley.

The Three Lions return to action on Tuesday, facing the Czech Republic in Prague, and remain in the hunt for a first Nations League win after they fell foul of a late Spain comeback at the weekend.

A misplaced pass from Nico O’Reilly was the cause of one of the goals conceded, while Marc Guehi was caught in possession for another.

But, speaking from Prague, Tuchel was adamant his defensive setup was not to blame, admitting England shot themselves in the foot.

“With a pure set-up of defending, isolated, if you want to look at it isolated within the structure and the units of the sides, I was quite happy and I think this was a step ahead,” Tuchel said.

Weakness identified: Thomas Tuchel (Getty)
Weakness identified: Thomas Tuchel (Getty)

“We suffered clearly from individual mistakes when we had the ball, especially in the deep build-up.”

The German continued, saying he expects technical excellence from his side moving forward.

“Of course, that is something we cannot repeat, especially not at this kind of level. We have to take care about this. We have to be technically absolutely clinical also under pressure.

“We need to improve these things but 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.

“Purely in defending, I have no concerns and trust that we can do it.

“Some players of course are not here that would also help in organising the defensive block but I don’t think we have any reason to be concerned.”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.