In ‘the dugout’ canteen, on his first day at England’s St George’s Park training base, Thomas Tuchel delivered a message that has been described as his mantra since he started as England head coach.
It was Monday, January 6 and all the Football Association staff at St George’s Park on that day were called to an impromptu meeting to meet Sir Gareth Southgate’s successor. “I am here to put another star on the jersey,” Tuchel said as he outlined that “everyone is in this together” – from the canteen staff to the coaches and players.
What Tuchel said was telling. In his opening address on Monday evening, 70 days later, to the first England squad he selected, he said the same thing. He even used the same phraseology: this is about adding another star – World Cup winners can have it embroidered on their shirts, England currently have one. About creating a “brotherhood”. About being “open and direct”. About winning. And about not wasting any time.
There are just six international camps and only 24 training days before England fly to their training base – probably on the east coast of the United States – for next year’s World Cup in North America.
Tuchel, of course, has already given up some days working with the players by deciding not to start until the beginning of this year, even though he apparently accepted the job on October 8 and could have taken the November camp against Greece and the Republic of Ireland.
The 51-year-old German came in for criticism for that but his view was that he wanted Lee Carsley, the interim head coach, to continue to blood young players and see through the Uefa Nations League campaign. It was important for England to gain promotion back to the top tier, which they did. Tuchel also felt it was cleaner and more focused for him to begin on January 1 on an 18-month contract and, crucially, once he had got his coaching team in place. He felt it meant they could hit the ground running.
Vital to that is Anthony Barry. The 5ft 7in Liverpudlian – a full eight inches shorter than Tuchel – is key and not least because he, unlike the rest of the staff, has worked in international football as an assistant with Ireland, Belgium and Portugal. Barry is said not to be overawed by big players such as Kevin De Bruyne and Cristiano Ronaldo, to have good people skills and to be meticulous in his work. Like Tuchel, he is a coach and worked with Dan Burn when they were both at Wigan Athletic.
But Barry needed to secure his release from assisting Roberto Martínez with Portugal before he could join England and that could not happen before the turn of the year. He is always by Tuchel’s side and was instrumental in hiring Justin Cochrane, Brentford’s highly-rated first-team coach, to join them. The pair were team-mates at Yeovil Town and completed their coaching badges together.
It was also Barry who was deputed to fly to Amsterdam and first scout and then talk to Jordan Henderson before Tuchel made the bombshell decision to recall the 34-year-old midfielder last Friday. Barry was a lower-profile presence in Ajax’s stadium, the Johan Cruyff Arena, and went unnoticed – much to the surprise of FA staff.
Tuchel and Barry are extremely close. The latter has turned down chances to be a club manager (firstly when Fleetwood Town thought they had hired him in 2021) because he wants to work with Tuchel. The first time was after the German replaced Frank Lampard at Chelsea. They went on to win the Champions League together and Barry said he would only have ever left the Premier League club – as the 38-year-old eventually did to join Bayern Munich – because Tuchel wanted him. Among Barry’s responsibilities will be set-pieces.
Before that all-department meeting, Tuchel had taken in three games in two days. It was a deliberate, high-profile ploy to show he meant business. But, firstly, on the Saturday morning he, Barry and the FA’s technical director John McDermott travelled to Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground and Spurs Lodge (where players stay before games) – which is England’s base before fixtures at Wembley.
The FA is planning an upgrade of St George’s Park and Tuchel wanted to inspect facilities which are regarded as best-in-class. He was impressed by what he saw, before being chauffeured to Tottenham’s stadium to watch their home game against Newcastle United on January 4. It was the first of 25 matches he has watched in person in nine weeks.
Tuchel has made sure he has watched every Premier League club and – between him and Barry – every potential player for his squad at least once live. Watching all the clubs was crucial because Tuchel wants to develop relationships. McDermott has usually been by his side, which has become something of a joke, but he has been used to introduce Tuchel to sporting directors and executives.
After Spurs, Tuchel took in the 5.30pm kick-off between Brighton & Hove Albion and Arsenal, then travelled, via St George’s Park, to see Liverpool against Manchester United the next day. He returned to St George’s Park on Sunday evening. The routine for Tuchel and his team, which includes performance coach Nicolas Mayer (who worked with him at Paris St-Germain), goalkeeping coach Hilário and lead analyst James Melbourne, has been to meet at the on-site Hilton hotel and stay there until Wednesday afternoon. They all eat lunch in the ‘dugout’ canteen.
In the build-up to the opening games of his tenure – on Friday against Albania and Monday against Latvia – Tuchel’s new England regime includes “optional” squad breakfast later in the morning in a move away from the strict timings under previous managers.
His relaxed camp, in stark contrast to the severe rules under the likes of Fabio Capello, is part of Tuchel’s plan to build a “brotherhood” spirit among his squad. Tuchel also embraced each player when they arrived in the lobby of their St George’s Park base.
Players have been told their breakfast time is between 9am and 11am and is “optional”. It is also later than under Southgate who used to start training sessions in the morning, which offered players an opportunity to sleep at some point in the afternoon. Under Tuchel, training starts in the afternoon.
Tuchel wants to have an atmosphere where every player can have their say and there is camaraderie among the squad rather than school-like rules.
While this all may amount to “man does job”, Tuchel – who primarily lives in London – has also dropped in on FA coaching courses to introduce himself and offer encouragement. This has included the Pro-Licence course, where he met Under-21 coach Ashley Cole.
One surprise is that Tuchel has taken greater interest in the under-age groups than was expected, especially the Under-21s. There have been several meetings with Carsley, beyond an expected hour-long debrief when they met in that first week at St George’s Park. For example, it was decided that Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson might benefit more from staying with the Under-21s and playing in this summer’s European Championship rather than receive a senior call-up now. Also, Adam Wharton, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Liam Delap – all left out of Tuchel’s squad – have been training with the seniors this week to gain experience.
There have been three weekends when he has not gone to games in England, partly using that time to visit his children in Munich – as he made clear he intended to do during his interview with the FA for the post.
Even then he has watched at least five matches a weekend using the bespoke ‘Helix’ software developed by FA analysts. Tuchel has also used the time to visit captain Harry Kane, at Bayern, and cross the Italian border to see Kyle Walker at AC Milan, who he has called up.
These classify as “interactions” – a word Tuchel is very keen on – as do something else Tuchel likes to do: watching how players warm up. Indeed, in his conversations with players ahead of choosing his squad – some of which have been remarkably frank – he has told them what he thought of their behaviour and how it has influenced his decision.
In fact, at least two players who did not make the cut have been left with the impression that they may have to leave their current clubs to get into the England frame. Not that he has been stern or serious. Tuchel, who can be intense and even volatile, is known for his sense of humour and has displayed that in his chats – not least for jokingly upbraiding Burn because he was still awake at 10pm when he texted him last Thursday.
When he met the 6ft 6in Newcastle United defender at St George’s Park he asked, with a smile, whether the England team outfit fitted him. Tuchel also told Jarell Quansah “you’re impressive”.
Indeed Tuchel has been described as “super chilled” since taking charge. The sensitive way he handled leaving out the popular Jack Grealish – saying he “loved” the Manchester City forward – and positively engaged with questions about him with constructive criticism did not go unnoticed by senior players.
In fact the sheer number of conversations Tuchel has had has been remarkable. The FA nominated the maximum number of players allowed by Fifa – 55 – three weeks before the squad announcement to allow him to speak to them all individually. If a national coach wants to talk to more than that number during that time he has to ask specific permission from the club although Tuchel had talked to several established internationals before then such as Kane and Jordan Pickford.
Tuchel’s way of operating has been to text a player in advance, so they know he is calling and it is his number, and follow it up with a FaceTime call rather than over the phone. How quickly players have responded has also been noted by him.
At the same time Hilário has been touring the training grounds holding individual meetings with potential England goalkeepers and going through their video clips with them.
Tuchel has been sensitive to the challenges clubs face and named his first squad last Friday, rather than the traditional Thursday, because he understood the magnitude of it and the attention there would be around it. It meant he did not want to do it on a day when Manchester United and Spurs had vital Europa League ties.
There is another type of “interaction” which Tuchel has identified. He is interested in data and analysis – he visited Matthew Benham’s Brentford on a fact-finding mission before he joined Borussia Dortmund in 2015 – but it was a graph of a different kind that he presented to the England players during his first address to them on Monday.
It showed that in the first-half of last July’s European Championship final there were 60 so-called “interactions” between the England players – moments of encouragement and togetherness. That dropped to just 35 in the second period when Spain took over and the game was lost.
Tuchel talked about the need for togetherness, even wanting his players to “high-five” each other as basketball players in the NBA do. He is a big fan of American sport and the frankness their players express, sometimes in criticising each other, and the mentality they show. He actively encourages players to call each other out, if needs be, and develop a competitive team spirit.
Even the layout of the Hilton has been reorganised a little to accentuate the communal areas where players can gather and talk, making it more akin to how it is done during tournaments. Coffee and juice bars were more visible, as was a games room this week.
It was interesting that at the start of his first full training session on Tuesday, on the Fara Williams pitch, one of the exercises was a one-touch ‘keepy-uppy’ routine, to try and ‘score’ in a large dustbin. It was all about working together closely and encouraging but there was also punishment for the losers, who had to do 10 press-ups each.
It was overseen by Mayer before the real work began. Tuchel was at the heart of it with his stopwatch and whistle as he outlined how he wanted England to play.
That training session started at 4.30pm and Tuchel has switched from the usual morning routine to afternoons to be closer to kick-off times. That is expected to now be the norm. Pickford joked it meant he could have a lie-in – adding that he woke up early anyway, before remembering he did not have to do the school run.
Tuchel has also undertaken a royal visit, meeting the Prince of Wales, a keen football fan and president of the FA, at Windsor Castle in February. He also caught up with several of his Champions League-winning former Chelsea players at the 50th birthday party of former club director Marina Granovskaia. That included Reece James – still at the club and selected for this England squad – Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell.
There was a casual meeting with Southgate, as both were guests at Manchester City’s Champions League tie against Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium, also in February. But there have been no talks between the pair. Not because Tuchel is avoiding Southgate, or vice versa. “It is not because I don’t trust his opinion – the opposite – I just did not want to be influenced too much,” Tuchel explained. He is intent on doing it his way.
