Thomas Tuchel stressed talent alone is not enough to make his World Cup squad because the right “social skills” and personality will be needed for England to stand a chance of glory this summer.
The head coach has spoken extensively of building a “brotherhood” and placed heavy emphasis on ensuring there is the right mentality within the camp. England are one of the favourites but the shirt has weighed heavily in the past and Tuchel will look at how players interact with each other before he names his 26-man squad for the finals.
The German has done his research on previous tournaments and has perhaps heard about how England managers failed to create the right dynamic at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. That changed when Gareth Southgate transformed the culture and Tuchel is keen to build on his predecessor’s work, not least because this World Cup features 48 teams and will last more than five weeks.
“When I speak to players who have been in World Cups, it has always made the difference when the connection was right, when the communication was right, between the players first of all,” Tuchel said.
“When the players had the feeling that the right group is in camp, that they knew their role, why they are in camp, what is expected of them, and they had the feeling that the tournament could even go on for another four weeks and they would be happy to be together, then they were successful.
“When they had the feeling after the round of 16 already: ‘Oh, when can we finally go home?’ and the energy was not right and they didn’t make it. This just tells me that we have to get the selection right. It will be very important that we don’t select just for talent, but also for what we need from a player. What the social skills are of a player, is he a good teammate? Can he support if his role is maybe the supporting role? So, this is where the focus is.”
Tuchel’s message was that being a good tourist will count when it comes to making his squad. Southgate often selected backup players who could be trusted to train well and not complain about their lack of playing time.
England, who host friendlies against Uruguay and Japan at Wembley in March, are expected to play warmup matches in Florida at the start of June. They do not play their first match in Group L until facing Croatia in Dallas on 17 June. They then face Ghana and Panama.
Tuchel, speaking in a commercial interview released on Thursday but filmed last month, has not finalised England’s travel itinerary. A big consideration will be ensuring that his players deal with the demands of a tournament taking place in Canada, Mexico and the US.
“It is a big tournament regarding distances, the time zones that you travel, the altitude – difference of altitude, difference of weather conditions,” Tuchel said. “It will be very hot. We will have a lot of players out there who hopefully play until May for international titles, they will play for national titles and we will demand a lot out of them.
“Then we will be hopefully six to eight weeks together if we make it until the very end. It will demand a lot of our social skills, how we are together as a group and we need to get the nomination right.
“We need to find the right balance in the team and take it as an opportunity and take it as a dream coming true to be part in a World Cup and to play, hopefully, a major role is nothing else than a dream.”
