Thomas Tuchel makes winning start with England but admits 'we have to do better'

Thomas Tuchel admitted lacklustre England must "do better" after the Three Lions boss started his reign with a spluttering 2-0 win against minnows Albania on Friday.

Tuchel had hoped to mark his debut with a dynamic display in England's opening World Cup qualifier at Wembley.

But England struggled to deliver the wow factor Tuchel had demanded earlier in the week when he claimed they were "afraid" to lose during their inconsistent run to the Euro 2024 final under predecessor Gareth Southgate.

Myles Lewis-Skelly repaid Tuchel's faith as the teenage Arsenal left-back put England ahead with a composed finish in the 20th minute of his debut.

England captain Harry Kane finally wrapped up the win with a clinical strike in the 77th minute.

But there were long spells of tedious sideways passing from the hosts as they laboured to prise open Albania's massed defence, prompting Tuchel to concede they had performed well below his expectations.

"We can do better, we have to do better," Tuchel said. "The opponent was hard to wear down as they defended in a deep block. But in the second half I felt we were too slow.

"In general we did not make enough runs off the ball to get behind them. We had some heavy legs. I felt we were a little bit tired.

"We will get better, we will get more rhythm. I will understand the players better, why do we struggle to get more runs in the final third.

"It is step by step. We will look at it. We will have video sessions and make sure we find solutions."

'We lost confidence'

Tuchel had urged England to emulate the intensity and attacking intent of the best Premier League sides rather than letting the fear of failure influence them as it had at times in Southgate's eight-year reign.

Instead, the German found getting England to change their ways will take more than a rousing speech.

"We wanted to increase the rhythm and risk in the second half. But we were not disciplined enough in the structure. We tried to do too much individually and it slowed our game down," he said.

"You want to see an open match. I can understand it's not the most exciting watch, but we still needed to do what was needed to do."

Tuchel, England's third non-British boss, highlighted the lack of impact from wingers Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden as symptomatic of his team's malaise.

"Both our wingers who started were not as impactful as how they have been in their clubs," said the German, who saw Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon suffer a hip injury that did not "look good".

"They didn't have the influence that we expected from them. We lacked runs off the ball.

"There was too much passing and not enough carrying the ball. We were not aggressive enough towards goal."

As he looks ahead to Monday's visit from Latvia, Tuchel hopes Lewis-Skelly's milestone moment -- the 18-year-old is the youngest player to score on his England debut -- can serve as inspiration to his team-mates.

"Amazing player. Amazing personality. He came into camp and showed straight away that it's normal to fall in love with him. It is well deserved," Tuchel said.

AFP