The first thing to note about Tuchel is his open discussion of tactical ideas.
Between the two matches the German pondered aloud whether a 4-1-4-1 formation would “give us enough control” or if modern football is too “fluid” for Rice alone at the base, whether “it would be the right thing to play in a very traditional 4-4-2 as an English national team”, and whether using two 10s would mean his “real wingers” would “suffer”.
Those news conferences have given rise to the nickname ‘Tommy Tactics’ – a moniker that highlights a sharp turn from Southgate, often criticised for his lack of tactical acumen.
That’s encouraging, although for all Tuchel’s talk he was still left surprised by how sluggish his team looked and how infrequently they risked cutting lines.
“We started a little bit too slow, slowing the game down and playing too much without movement – which makes no sense,” Tuchel said after the Latvia game. “We didn’t want to do this.”
After Albania: “At the moment I’m not so sure why we struggled to bring the ball quicker to [the wingers], to bring the ball in more [of an] open position to them. I need to review the match.”
England fell far short of where Tuchel wants them to be, and although this is partly about “the identity, the clarity, the rhythm, the repetition of patterns, the freedom of player, the expression of player, the hunger” – Tuchel’s description of what beaten finalists England lacked at Euro 2024 – it is also about discovering the right tactical system.
The first tentative steps were made this week.
