Thomas Tuchel’s comments about England’s DNA don’t make sense – his Premier League stars have proven they are able to keep the ball.
That is the verdict of Sean Dyche, who also argued that the Three Lions boss has had 18 months to sort his side’s possession issues.
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England are reeling from their heartbreaking 2-1 World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina, with Tuchel’s tactics coming under fire.
Having taken a second-half lead through Anthony Gordon, the Three Lions conceded two late goals to surrender their place in the final.
But the manner of the collapse in Atlanta has proven difficult for fans to take after Tuchel’s decision to change to a more defensive shape.
England boasted just 12 per cent possession to Argentina’s 88 per cent from Gordon’s goal in the 55th minute to Lautaro Martínez’s 92nd-minute winner.
That is just one per cent more than Qatar managed in that same time of their 6-0 loss to Canada when they only had nine players.
In the 18 minutes and 37 seconds between 66:05 and 84:42, England completed just two successful passes – an exchange between goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and centre-back John Stones.
For that, Tuchel blamed the country’s ‘football DNA’, saying ‘it’s maybe not in our DNA like it is in our Spanish DNA or in our Argentinian or Brazilian DNA, to take the ball and control the game with the ball.’
Disagreeing with Tuchel’s DNA verdict
During an appearance on eSPORTY Breakfast, Dyche said he knows for a fact it is not a part of the DNA to not be able to keep the ball.
The former Everton and Nottingham Forest boss claimed Tuchel has also had ample time to change England’s philosophy if it was an issue.
“I don’t think it’s easy when you’re a manager and especially what’s happened,” Dyche told Jeff Stelling. “The weight on your shoulders has got to say something at the end of the day.
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“But what I would say is, having been in the Premier League for so many years, I’m pretty sure, and in fact I know this, the Premier League has the highest possession stats certainly in Europe, I think across the world.
“So I don’t agree with ‘it’s in our DNA’ because most of these players, well, virtually all of them, play in the Premier League.
“So if you’re playing football regularly in the Premier League and you’re in teams that are averaging something like 800 passes a game or whatever, I think the highest is something like 875 or something like that. I don’t agree with that part.
“The only thing I would say is, he’s been in for circa 18 months, so surely if that’s the problem or you’ve noticed that as a problem, it’s your responsibility, I imagine, as the manager in your coaching team, to improve upon that.
“Now I know they only get certain coaching windows, but if you think it’s a problem and you’ve recognised the problem, possibly, he did say ‘maybe’, to be fair to him, I like to bring balance to managers’ lives, and he did say maybe it’s a DNA problem, but on this occasion I think that’s clutching a little bit.
“At the end of the day, these players now, they’ve been brought up since they were seven years old; possession is king, you know what I mean? So I think they can deal with the ball.
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Dyche continued: “I think it’s the responsibility of the coaching team and of the players, don’t get me wrong, to go and deal with the ball and keep the ball, and there’s different ways of winning games.
“One is a tactical way of winning, which they tried to do, which is defend it out, of course, and let’s have it right: if they get over the line by doing that, I don’t think it would have said tactical genius, but it would have said, well, fair play, they’ve found a way.
“Like some of the other games, let’s face it, it’s not been glorious football. It’s not been glorious. Find a way to get the job done.
“Now that didn’t happen, so of course, a massive furore about why it didn’t happen and the big inquest starts.”
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Encouraging warning signs
eSPORTY understands the FA have no plans to part ways with Tuchel, who has stated that he also fully intends to carry on as coach.
But the warning signs were there prior to the Argentina loss, Dyche added, when pointing to the rest of England’s knockout games.
The Three Lions had to come from behind to beat DR Congo, before a battling defensive performance against Mexico could be chalked up to Jarell Quansah’s second-half red card in the testing conditions.
England then benefited from favourable VAR decisions to edge out Norway in extra-time, with the semi-finals a bridge too far.
Dyche said: “I mean, I wasn’t overly enamoured with what we were doing anyway. I’d spoken freely on this marvellous channel that we’re on and on eSPORTY regularly and said, ‘Look, it’s not as good as what everyone was making out,’ I didn’t think.
“And that’s nothing against the manager, Thomas Tuchel, nothing at all. It’s just that I wasn’t thinking we were blowing teams away and we were purring, but we were finding a way, and that’s equally fair to say.
“That’s a brilliant thing to have, of course, if you’re not playing brilliantly, but you’re winning games. Now, that’s a great habit. We all know that. So I don’t think I was too…
“I try to keep balance to my comments about these things, and I didn’t think we were magnificent anyway.
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“There was a lot of talk about this ‘feel’, and how the ‘feel’ was better; I wasn’t having that bit. I was going, ‘Oh, come on, do me a favour.’
“I’d spoken freely, I think it was with Simon [Jordan] and Jim [White], about Gareth [Southgate’s] time and they were sort of suggesting I was supporting him because I’m his mate and all that.
“I wasn’t. I was just going on how I think it was. I don’t think there was radical change. I had a big debate with Simon about it on their show and said, ‘Look, I don’t think there is radical change.’
“So I was saying there is, and he’s a master tactician and that’s fine, I’ve got no problem with people’s comments because we’re here now talking about it. But I did say on that show, I did say to Simon, I said, ‘Simon, there’s nothing radically changed here.’
“If you cut through the noise and you go… In balance to that side of it, which I have been intrigued with, I think it’s the best opportunity we’ve ever had to win the World Cup, certainly in my lifetime.
“Not because we’re amazing, but because the other superpowers are not as superpowered as what they were. France were flying; I think we’re all shocked by that one because they were the ones who you thought, ‘Right, OK, they’re what we think they should be apart from their last game.’
“And equally, you look at them, and they are superpowered, and yet you look at their last game, and you go, ‘What just happened there?’
“So it is the World Cup, it’s not easy to win a World Cup, everyone sort of suggests it is, but it’s not.”
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Next England manager?
Before the World Cup, Tuchel signed a two-year contract extension until the end of Euro 2028.
However, eSPORTY’s Jamie O’Hara has already led the calls to hire Eddie Howe, who has long been linked to the England job.
On the discussion around Tuchel’s hypothetical successor, Dyche said: “The only thing I’m ever going to get involved with is Eddie Howe.
“I don’t understand; well, apparently he wasn’t spoken to.
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“I’m amazed at that because he knows the players like the back of his hand. He knows the league.
“He’s gained his experience from working from the very bottom to the top. That’s amazing to me.
“Well, as I was told, I’m not sure 100 per cent, but as far as I know he wasn’t spoken to.”
