Thomas Tuchel believes scars of previous setbacks will help England in their quest for World Cup glory and revealed how his own penalty shootout pain has sharpened preparations.
The back-to-back European Championship finalists are among the favourites for glory this summer and expected by most to emerge victorious from their first knockout match on Wednesday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo are their round of 32 opponents, and the level of expectation is similar heading into the match as England’s humiliating defeat to Iceland a decade ago.
Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, John Stones and Jordan Henderson are survivors from the Euro 2016 set-up and the manager sees such lows as something that can aid success.
“You will not find great athletes who didn’t suffer big defeats,” the England boss said. “You just don’t find them.
“I just finished a documentary with Rafa Nadal and even me I thought ‘he just wins every match out there every year’.
“But you see, wow, a year of injuries, a heavy loss there, another big defeat, doubts, sleepless nights, self-doubts and questioning and everyone around him doubting it.
“Even if you have scars, it is just the way it is. There is no way you get through this without. We all had our losses. We all had our big defeats where you doubt yourself.
“Ask me how I felt after our 1-0 against New Zealand. I still remember thinking: ‘Am I good enough, am I good enough? Did I get this right? OK, let’s keep on.’ It’s just the way it is. It is just normal, but you accept it.
“And if you want to win a big prize, there is not an easy route to get there.”
England are ready to go the distance at the magnificent Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Tuchel’s own personal nightmare in 2016 could be a major help.
Leading Borussia Dortmund in his first cup final against Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, he revealed his preparations on the in-game battle were so meticulous that he forgot a crucial detail.
“When the whistle went, I was just not prepared,” Tuchel said. “I forgot to prepare for a penalty shootout.
“So, we ended up asking the players: ‘Do you want to shoot? Do you want to shoot? Do you want to shoot?’ And they were ready for it. They were: one, two, three, four, five, we go. And we were absolutely not ready. And we lost it.
“So, a very painful experience and a big, big scar on me, because I felt really, really badly that I had let myself down, so it was the first time. It will never happen again.
“So, from there, we started our own programme, our own preparation.
“Now I go into the FA and I have — on the highest level, since years and years — a penalty programme that is so easy (for me to) just (pick up) and wait for people to tell me who are the best shooters.
“We trained it. We have a process in place, so we are prepared. This has become such an important part, a very special part of football now, that you can prepare and do the best to be prepared, which we did.
“It is just another example that you sometimes have to have a painful experience to understand where to get better.”
