England head coach Thomas Tuchel said he wanted “more impact” from his wide players and said Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford were not as “decisive” as they could have been in his first game in charge against Albania.
Tuchel explained that he wanted more “dribbling” and “aggressive runs” and said elements of Foden and Rashford’s performances were “missing” in the 2-0 win over Albania at Wembley.
Overall, Tuchel said England “can do better” and “have to better” in future matches after goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly and Harry Kane gave England a winning start in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
But the German was fairly critical of Foden and Rashford’s nights, with Anthony Gordon and Jarrod Bowen called to replace them from the bench midway through the second half.
When asked about Foden and Rashford, Tuchel told ITV: “We hoped for more impact in these positions; we tried Anthony and Jarrod.
"I hoped for more impact, more dribbling, less passes, more dribbling, and more aggressive runs towards the box. I think in general that was missing.
“I think all the chances came from little diagonal runs behind the line. Jude [Bellingham] had some good runs in the first half. Myles scored from it. Kyle [Walker] had one.
“It was a bit missing [ from the wide players]. They were not as decisive as they can be."
Tuchel had only four days to work with his new players but said England’s performance was “too slow” in the second half. The night was not a comfortable one for Tuchel until Kane doubled their lead on 77 minutes.
"We can do better, we have to do better,” he added. “We started well, we had seven to eight minutes with 100 per cent ball possession with a lot of passes and high energy.
" But the opponent is hard to break down as they defend in a deep block. In the Euros they managed to not concede chances. In the second half, I felt we were too slow and in general not enough runs off the ball to get behind the line."
