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England manager Thomas Tuchel expressed disappointment with England's performance despite a 1-0 win over New Zealand in their pre-FIFA World Cup friendly, pointing out his team's "freestyle" football gameplay in the first half.
Harry Kane was the sole scorer as England secured a 1-0 win over New Zealand at Tampa on Saturday. Following the loss, Tuchel pointed out how his side played "out of positions" in the first half and was much better in the second half, saying that he is not "super happy" about his side's tactics and lack of structure heading into the marquee tournament. "I am OK with it (the win)," said the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss as quoted by Goal.com. "I am not super-happy about it. I like the second half more than the first half. We played more from our positions, and that is why we played with more speed, and off the ball, we played with a bit more bite. The first half we were out of position, and it was a bit too much freestyle. That slowed our game down and made it difficult for the counterpress because we were not in the positions that we wanted to be when we started attacking. That is basically the story of the match," he said. He also said that the team lacked width, with "players coming inside and narrowing the team, slowing down and changing positions for too long". "We were taking crosses, a lot of long-range shots, normally not our style of play. We played a lot of long balls, we played a lot of long passes. That was not part of the training in the last four days," he added. A bright spot in the team's performance was a cameo from Jude Bellingham, who returned from an injury layoff and improved England's attacking tempo after replacing Morgan Rogers. Tuchel said that "he is in top shape and has the bite". "Jude has the decisiveness, and he has the bite," Tuchel said. "This is a key characteristic. You can see that he comes back from an injury and is full of energy and happy to be back on the pitch. He had his break, unfortunately, in a decisive part of the season. But you can see now that he is actually in a sweet spot. He comes back, he's fresh, he wants to play, and he is in top shape," he added. He also hailed his side's sole goal-scorer Kane, saying that "he is always there to score". "It is a decisive goal. Harry is in top shape, and I think that when the pressure comes, and the tournament starts, that will bring the best out of all our players," he added. The hot weather in Florida tested players' physical limits, and the manager views it as an important hurdle and feels that the team must adapt to environmental challenges before the WC begins. Now England head to Orlando before the final friendly against Costa Rica on Wednesday. "We had one training in the sun, and now this match felt really, really odd," Tuchel admitted. "But it is good that we are exposed because that's why we're here. We wanted it that way, and we need to get used to it because it will come at some point," he signed off. England is in Group L with Panama, Ghana and Croatia and will start against Croatia on June 17 at Arlington. (ANI)
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