THOMAS TUCHEL HAILED Jude Bellingham as “world class” but let his England players know in no uncertain terms that they were fortunate to beat Norway 2-1 after extra time in this World Cup quarter-final.
The England boss fumed about how the technical quality of their performance and said they were lucky to come through in Miami.
A semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday now awaits and Tuchel was adamant improvement is needed.
“I never talked about suffering. We made life very, very difficult for ourselves. The result is fantastic, we’re in the last four, it’s amazing but I’m not happy with the performance. In every sense. The commitment was there again but we made life very difficult for ourselves in the way we played, how we played.
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“It was sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today,” he said in his post-match interview straight after full-time, although he stressed it was not an issue of mentality.
“This [win] is pure mentality, how can you ask about mentality now? This is pure mentality. There is no mentality problem, this is pure mentality. You can bottle it up and sell it.
“It’s the quality of our games, that’s [it]. It is nothing to do with mentality.”
When Bellingham was informed of Tuchel’s strident remarks, the two-goal England hero shrugged and made a point of praising his teammates.
“Yeah, well, whatever, whatever. It’s difficult out there, it’s difficult. It’s a tough shift. All of the players put in a very tough shift and my thoughts and appreciations go to all the players who were out there, who put in a great shift.”
Later, in his mixed zone interview as man of the match, Bellingham was again asked about Tuchel’s comments and if it showed his high standards for the squad.
“Maybe, but maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those kinds of conditions against Erling Haaland, Odegaard, Nusa, Sorloth. That’s not an easy team to play against.
“We’ve tried to create a positive environment, we should continue that going into the final four. I can’t speak highly enough of the lads. You’re not going to win every game popping the ball and making 1,000 passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty and I thought we done that again.”
Tuchel was positive about the impact substitutes Djed Spence, Eberchi Eze and Morgan Rogers made, but stopped short in his praise.
“Full credit to them but overall we got lucky. It’s also about quality. You need to play better. We will get better, we need to get better. Now is a celebration, taking it all in. we have three days, we need a better performance.”
And on Bellingham, Tuchel added: “Enough said. He does it every single match. World class.”
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'We’ve tried to create a positive environment, we should continue that' - Jude Bellingham on Thomas Tuchel criticism
THOMAS TUCHEL HAILED Jude Bellingham as “world class” but let his England players know in no uncertain terms that they were fortunate to beat Norway 2-1 after extra time in this World Cup quarter-final.
The England boss fumed about how the technical quality of their performance and said they were lucky to come through in Miami.
A semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday now awaits and Tuchel was adamant improvement is needed.
“I never talked about suffering. We made life very, very difficult for ourselves. The result is fantastic, we’re in the last four, it’s amazing but I’m not happy with the performance. In every sense. The commitment was there again but we made life very difficult for ourselves in the way we played, how we played.
“It was sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today,” he said in his post-match interview straight after full-time, although he stressed it was not an issue of mentality.
“This [win] is pure mentality, how can you ask about mentality now? This is pure mentality. There is no mentality problem, this is pure mentality. You can bottle it up and sell it.
“It’s the quality of our games, that’s [it]. It is nothing to do with mentality.”
When Bellingham was informed of Tuchel’s strident remarks, the two-goal England hero shrugged and made a point of praising his teammates.
“Yeah, well, whatever, whatever. It’s difficult out there, it’s difficult. It’s a tough shift. All of the players put in a very tough shift and my thoughts and appreciations go to all the players who were out there, who put in a great shift.”
Later, in his mixed zone interview as man of the match, Bellingham was again asked about Tuchel’s comments and if it showed his high standards for the squad.
“Maybe, but maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those kinds of conditions against Erling Haaland, Odegaard, Nusa, Sorloth. That’s not an easy team to play against.
“We’ve tried to create a positive environment, we should continue that going into the final four. I can’t speak highly enough of the lads. You’re not going to win every game popping the ball and making 1,000 passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty and I thought we done that again.”
Tuchel was positive about the impact substitutes Djed Spence, Eberchi Eze and Morgan Rogers made, but stopped short in his praise.
“Full credit to them but overall we got lucky. It’s also about quality. You need to play better. We will get better, we need to get better. Now is a celebration, taking it all in. we have three days, we need a better performance.”
And on Bellingham, Tuchel added: “Enough said. He does it every single match. World class.”
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2026 world cup England Jude Bellingham Soccer tetchy thomas tuchel