Inside the swanky Spurs Lodge at seven o’clock on Sunday night, England will sit down to eat as one.
Players and staff breaking bread together — a buffet with several different options, no different to a Premier League team — at the same time has been one of the changes implemented by Thomas Tuchel this week.
It is altering the routine of Gareth Southgate, where the day’s main meal was served across a one-hour window. They came and went at their own choosing.
Tuchel’s ideas here are fairly old school really but they are something the German believes will help when it comes to the crux, speaking to the ‘brotherhood’ he has discussed at length.
This, on the surface, appears a strange concept to pick up on post-Southgate, whose apparent deficiencies came tactically rather than the environment, but Tuchel is not necessarily always meaning fighting for each other.
Equally, he means sticking to the plan, to knowing exactly what the guy behind or next to you is doing, to float through games in unison.
Thomas Tuchel has been giving plenty of hugs and high-fives to his England players
The German boss is trying to forge a band of brothers ahead of next year’s World Cup
The players have also been having sit-down dinners together and enjoy relaxed pastimes such as table tennis
Tuchel’s side began their World Cup qualifying campaign by beating Albania 2-0 at Wembley
Tuchel has looked calm — especially when resting on advertising hoardings once the qualifier against Albania was won on Friday night at Wembley — yet the reality is that this has been a forthright first few days spent on the edge for England’s latest saviour. He has an eye on the clock, making plain the 24 training days they have until the World Cup with a sense of urgency during his first team meeting on Monday, and he has clearly defined the issue behind England not inching themselves over the line at a major tournament.
It is the intangibles, the togetherness — not in the sense of camaraderie but a collective in-game cohesion — that Tuchel believes is the difference.
So he is having to accelerate all of that, manufacture it over six camps until America, Canada and Mexico. ‘I’m not the most patient guy in the world when it comes to it, but I will learn and push the players,’ he said. Well quite, that has become abundantly clear.
Part of his opening address at the beginning of this camp centred on last summer’s European Championship final against Spain and what he calls the ‘interactions’ between players — bits of encouragement, the high fives, then cajoling. The staff’s study into that night revealed how those dropped significantly in the second half as the eventual champions grabbed the match by its throat.
Although there were a number of instances of positive reinforcement — noticeably from Jordan Pickford and Ezri Konsa towards Harry Kane when heading away danger or Pickford’s embrace of Konsa for a recovery challenge — the victory over Albania trailed off somewhat. It might be that he identifies this team as one who need to learn how to follow through for an entirety.
‘His presence is a bit different,’ Morgan Rogers — pushing for a start on Monday — said. ‘His aura is one I’ve not experienced before. Very straight-up, no cutting round corners. The best way to get information across is to be like that.’
Tuchel, who pops over to watch the Under 21 sessions, has effectively flipped the training days from those of his predecessor. Dinners and lunches might be regimented but breakfasts are looser, allowing for different sleep patterns. Naturally, those with children generally rise earlier. Table tennis and competitive downtime activities are mid-morning through to lunch, with training now five hours later, much closer to kick-off times.
Tuchel handed Dan Burn his first international cap after giving the 32-year-old his maiden call-up
Myles Lewis-Skelly also made his debut on Friday, before marking the occasion with a goal
Tuchel has looked to create a relaxed atmosphere in his opening training camp
They mean long days but allow for ad-hoc meetings with players, individually or in groups, ahead of training. He wants more ingenuity from his midfield, especially when met with a low block — as on Friday and almost certainly against Latvia on Monday — and the protagonists to become problem solvers.
Assistant Anthony Barry has spotted that the body shape of their men in the middle needs to be more open, allowing for a wider range of options immediately from the first touch. A basic and something that would present quicker ball out to the wingers, which was lacking against Albania, and did not play to the strengths of either Phil Foden or Marcus Rashford.
Tuchel has discussed with Declan Rice how to pierce the lines and talked Myles Lewis- Skelly through his move into the high No 8 position at Wembley.
The idea moving forward is that all of this is fixed by the players themselves. Arguably, they ought to be able to do that already as Tuchel’s first lesson of the crash course comes to a close.
