Several paper airplanes took a sharp flight down towards the dugouts at Wembley Stadium as England drifted a little during the second half of their 3-0 thrashing of Wales. It was perhaps at this moment, with some fans distracted in a game long since settled, that Thomas Tuchel became irritated by a lack of energy from supporters. The German had emphasised how it was “silent” despite their breathtaking display. He had seen Morgan Rogers dazzle, Ollie Watkins strike in relief of the injured Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka deliver a rasping strike into the top corner of the net to turn cheers into gasps of admiration.
“We could have been 5-0 up at half-time,” Tuchel claimed, and he wasn’t wrong after Saka’s one-on-one was repelled by a desperate Joe Rodon lunge and Watkins contrived to miss from a yard. “We couldn’t score the fourth and fifth ones. The stadium was silent. We didn’t get any energy back from the stands. We did everything to win.”
“Yes [we expected more from the fans]. What more can you give in 20 minutes? We didn’t let them escape. If you hear just Wales fans for half an hour, it’s sad because the team deserved more support today.”
While it was not the raucous, bouncing Wembley Stadium famously seen in the Euros semi-final win against Denmark, it was never likely to be that in a friendly against an overmatched side.
But despite an ambivalence towards Wembley and its potential to rouse the players, Tuchel is disinterested in a potential Three Lions national tour.
“No, we don’t need to make a big thing,” Tuchel remarked on the prospect of a rotating host venue for home games in the country to combat any dip in atmosphere. “Today I thought that the team deserved. I thought like ‘wow, come on’, we have a kind of a derby, a lot of spectators from Wales and we are 3-0 up and we have ball-win after ball-win, chance, another ball-win, another attack.
“They should not under-estimate how much it helps sometimes if the game goes a bit flat. Like if they keep the thing going again it could help us and then we would have maybe scored and regained energy. It is give and take.”
Tuchel’s expectations are high, but his decision to spend energy on the lack of noise, for a spell in the second half no less, distracts from the clear and impressive progress in a relatively short space of time.
Tuchel has spoken about his desire to transform England into a team that resembles one from the Premier League.
And that first half certainly added evidence, following the sensational 5-0 win in Belgrade, that England have embraced this new identity and change from the Gareth Southgate era, moving the ball at speed to open up sides, while retaining an appetite for something special, as displayed by Saka’s cracker last night.
“We are getting there,” Tuchel remarked when asked if his England resemble a Premier League side. “We are getting there 100 per cent. In Serbia it looked like club football and today it looked like club football.”
England took up a 3-2-5 shape in possession, with Elliott Anderson striking up an exciting foundation alongside Declan Rice to allow the Three Lions to showcase five attacking players with plenty of freedom to overwhelm teams when fully firing.
Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer should thrive in this environment when they return and the competition for places brings a certain joy to the way the team plays, with motivation clearly preserved even for friendlies.
Perhaps forgotten in the slick play inside the final third is England’s No 1: Jordan Pickford. Now the first-ever goalkeeper to keep eight consecutive clean sheets for the national side, the Everton goalkeeper’s vital stops to deny David Brooks and Chris Mepham show a team ready to win in a multitude of ways.
“I have said the support in Serbia was absolutely fantastic,” Tuchel said in a bid to soften his criticism a little. “I said it and I meant it. I love English football fans and support they give. The atmosphere did not match the performance on the field today.
“We will have top support in Latvia, we had excellent support in Serbia. But today we were 3-0 up after 20 minutes, we had ball win after ball win and I felt, ‘why is the roof still on the stadium?’ It could have helped us in some moments in the second half.”
Latvia will bring another chance for England to shine and build more momentum, though Tuchel has been alert to fend off any kind of “favourites” tag entering the 2026 World Cup. Kane, held back due to an ankle knock, maintained he would be fine to return in Riga. Watkins also played down any concerns after whacking his knee on a post in the first half.
It makes for a settled side, outside of the full-backs, and an element of uncertainty for the time being. Though Ezri Konsa and Djed Spence’s performances showed a degree of interchangeability without Reece James, currently injured, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, lacking match sharpness out of Arsenal’s starting line-up for the time being.
The England band will help raise the volume in Riga, Los Angeles and beyond, but Tuchel’s moan should not overshadow a team in harmony fast approaching a World Cup year.
