MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Less than a year into the Thomas Tuchel era and England has seen little to suggest its decades-long wait for a trophy will end at next year's World Cup.
The German coach goes into the latest round of World Cup qualifiers on the back of two chastening performances in June, including a 3-1 loss at home to Senegal.
The other match, an unconvincing 1-0 victory over Andorra, was described by one British newspaper as England's “worst ever” win.
Tuchel, hired last October and in position since January, was appointed because of his trophy-winning pedigree at Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich and charged with the responsibility of delivering England's first trophy since its one and only World Cup triumph in 1966.
Reminders of the expectations on him are rarely far away.
“I get a lot of tips that’s for sure. But always in a friendly manner,” Tuchel said of his encounters with England fans on the street. “Most of them just say, 'Bring it home, Thomas.’ And that’s basically the task.”
‘Dark day for England’
The decision by the English Football Association to appoint a foreign coach to succeed Gareth Southgate was a contentious one. Let alone the fact that Tuchel is German, historically one of England's fiercest rivals in soccer.
There was criticism from some sections of the media, with one newspaper greeting the appointment by publishing a back page headline declaring it was a “dark day for England.”
Criticism since has been more focused on England's performances. Even Tuchel complained about his team's attitude in the narrow win against the 173rd-ranked Andorra.
The teams meet again at Villa Park on Saturday when improvement is expected.
“The camp (at the end of the season) is always a bit of a tricky one in terms of coming from holidays and coming after a long season, being tired,” Tuchel said on Friday. "And then the need to restart the engines after a long season, so yeah, we take all of this into our observations.
“We had our learnings so we made our decisions to make it more competitive for the next three camps.”
Those three camps will complete England's World Cup qualifying campaign. It tops Group K with maximum points after three games. The away fixture against Serbia on Tuesday will likely be the trickiest match remaining.
Under Southgate, England reached back-to-back European Championship finals and the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup. Yet by the end of his reign — defeat to Spain in the final of Euro 2024 — the patience of some fans had begun to wear out.
That is the measure of how high the bar is for Tuchel, who won league titles with PSG and Bayern Munich and the Champions League with Chelsea.
His contract runs only until the end of next year's World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“I’m happy where the team is, and we can feel it that it’s a change of attitude if you finally arrive in the World Cup season,” he said.
While England's men have been waiting decades to taste glory, the women's team have enjoyed consistent success under Sarina Wiegman, including back-to-back European Championship titles, the most recent in July.
Does that add to the pressure on Tuchel to follow suit?
“If it’s something, it’s a good omen,” he said. “It’s possible. There’s no curse on English teams, so it’s a good omen, and we will do our very best to follow the example.”
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
James Robson, The Associated Press
