England boss Thomas Tuchel has slammed his players as feeling ‘frozen’ and ‘not being active enough’ after their friendly defeat against Senegal.
The Three Lions suffered a humiliating 3-1 defeat at the City Ground in Nottingham on Tuesday night.
Tuchel made 10 changes from their lacklustre performance against Andorra but to no avail.
Despite taking an early lead when Harry Kane tapped in his 73rd international goal, England struggled to maintain any momentum in the match.
Harry Kane tapped in the opener to put England ahead on the night
Reuters
They ultimately went into half-time level after Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr hit home just before the break, after a lack of concentration at the back for England.
Habib Diarra then capitalised on yet more sloppy defensive awareness to put the African side ahead, before Cheikh Sabaly finished off an inch-perfect counter-attack for the visitors to complete a historic and well-deserved victory.
After the match, Tuchel did not hold back on his reflection: “Felt a bit frozen and not active enough for a long time over the match.”
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England boss Thomas Tuchel was not impressed by England's performance
Reuters
The comments come after Tuchel claimed England were not running enough during their victory against Andorra last week.
His concerns will have only grown after Tuesday night’s defeat, in which Senegal became the first African football team in history to beat England.
Tuchel continued: “We go into a long break with a bad feeling. It's a disappointing result. I’m not sure if we did not deserve a little bit more result-wise.
“We conceded two very cheap goals and then had big chances to equalise.
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"We didn’t … so the result is the result. It is tough learning at the moment because we hate to lose.”
The German boss added: “We know more now, we are smarter. It’s tough at the moment. I am the first one to dislike and hate losses like nothing else.
“But we don’t go next week to the World Cup, we go in one year.”
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Senegal celebrated a historic win against England
Reuters
England skipper Kane, who was subbed off in the 58th minute for Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers leaving the Three Lions without an out-and-out striker on the pitch, said there were “no excuses” for the defeat.
“We had moments but, with and without the ball, things aren't clicking, we're not finding the right tempo,” Kane stated.
“We've lost that aggressive nature that we had. Not good enough. It's a mixture of things but no excuses.
“We need to find it quick, the World Cup is going to come around really fast so every camp is really important right now.
“We're not going to panic but we know we need to be better.”
The message from both boss and skipper was not to panic after a disappointing week, particularly in an international friendly at the tail-end of a season.
But, with the World Cup just a year away, England must book up their ideas and make sure that their next set of matches, against Andorra and Serbia in September, are a vast improvement on the disappointment of this week.
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