Thomas Tuchel was frustrated by England’s “freestyle” first-half display against New Zealand as World Cup preparations stepped up with a scrappy win in sweltering conditions.
Having flown to Florida at the start of the week for a warm-weather training camp, the build-up continued on Saturday in the first of two Stateside warm-up friendlies.
Tuchel, as planned, switched the entire team in Tampa at half-time, which England went into leading after Harry Kane brilliantly steered home Djed Spence’s cross in stoppage-time.
It proved the only goal at sparsely-filled Raymond James Stadium, but the coach liked more of what he saw from the second half having been frustrated by some of the players’ earlier approach.
“I’m OK with it,” England boss Tuchel said after the 1-0 win. “I’m not super happy about it. I liked the second half more than the first half.
“I think we had more bite in the second half, were more aggressive on and off the ball, created a bit more. Some good half chances and some good penetrations into the box.
“We played more from our positions and that’s why we played with more speed.”
He continued: “The first half we were out of positions and it was a bit too much freestyle.
“That slowed our game down and made it difficult for counter-press because we were not in the positions that we wanted to be when we started attacking, so that’s basically the story of the match.
“To put it in context, a lot of our players played the last time together in November, so it’s half a year ago.
“We have four training sessions together and we mixed the team up completely, so we never played before in these combinations and formation to give everyone 45 minutes.
“Then you have the conditions, the pitch, it can look like this.”
Tuchel was glad his side were exposed to “really, really hot” conditions on Saturday, having had to deal with some rain and grey skies at their West Palm Beach base.
The England boss was also relieved to see his side emerge unscathed on the patchwork pitch in Tampa, with an Orlando friendly against Costa Rica following on Wednesday.
“It was very difficult to play on,” Tuchel said. “I think it was not dangerous to have injuries.
“We have no injuries and there were no concerns but it was very uneven, very uneven. It was difficult to move the ball and move the ball quickly.
“When you have the ball for the majority of the match, it doesn’t help you.”
Tuchel’s side were always expected to beat New Zealand, the lowest-ranked side at the World Cup, but their English head coach Darren Bazeley says his homeland need to improve if they are to succeed this summer.
“I think most countries, including England today, when they’re playing their first game, they want to get everybody good minutes, acclimatised, get the legs moving heading into the World Cup,” he said.
“England were good today, but they need to be better to go and win the World Cup than they were today, even though they won the game.
“This is a game where they all got 45 minutes, they’ve obviously got players coming back in that are not quite ready yet.”
