Thomas Tuchel insisted there is ‘no need to panic’ despite England being booed off the pitch for the second time in four days, with it only a year on Wednesday until the 2026 World Cup officially gets going.
Tuchel believes they have ample time to improve between now and then, though this was another pitiful performance from his side. Senegal became the first-ever African side to defeat the Three Lions in this friendly, following on from Saturday’s 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over lowly Andorra.
Jude Bellingham thought he had equalised late in Nottingham, only for VAR to disallow it for a handball by Levi Colwill as Cheikh Sabaly sealed victory in stoppage time for Senegal. Bellingham kicked a box of water bottles after full-time as he vented his anger towards one of the assistant referees and a disgruntled supporter near the press box shouted: ‘Tuchel out.’
Tuchel, however, wants the fans to trust his process as he said afterwards: ‘There is no need to panic. We lost the test match. We have three qualification games, we have nine points and we have not conceded. We will be competitive in September and we will go for two more weeks. One hundred per cent. We know more now. We are smarter. It is tough at the moment.
‘I’m the first one to dislike and hate losses like nothing else. But it is not next week. We don’t go next week to the World Cup. We go in one year. I think, by nature, it will get more competitive.
‘We go into a long break with bad feelings and a loss which is simply not nice and which is not what we wanted. I will never be glad for a loss. I’m glad for tough tests. We wanted to feel the quality of a top-20 team and we felt that quality of Senegal. We felt what it means to them.
Thomas Tuchel believes there is ‘no need to panic’ despite England losing at home to Senegal
It was a humbling night for England just one year out from the 2026 World Cup
Harry Kane scored England’s only goal, but admitted his side ‘need to be better’
‘I heard them in the dressing room before the match and after the match and then you know exactly what it means for them to play against us. It’s the right thing to test.’
Harry Kane scored a tap-in within seven minutes but goals from Ismaila Sarr and Habib Diarra gave Senegal the lead before Sabaly added their third in stoppage time.
ITV pundit Roy Keane believes the England camp is clearly lacking in camaraderie ahead of next year’s World Cup as he said: ‘They are all waiting for something to happen. They don’t look like a happy group. Are they really all in it together? I’m not so sure.’
On how the players react with one another when a mistake is made, Keane added: ‘It looks like they are having a chat like they are in Starbucks.’
England captain Kane admitted they were ‘not good enough’ as he added: ‘We had moments, but with and without the ball things aren’t clicking, we’re not finding the right tempo, we’ve lost that aggressive nature that we had.’
He also complained that Bellingham’s goal should never have been disallowed for handball by Colwill, saying: ‘If you know the rules, it’s not handball. That gets us back in the game and maybe we can go on and win. It’s a big moment. It’s something we will discuss later.
‘We’re not going to panic but we know we need to be better. There’s new players coming into the team that don’t have experience at international level. 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.’
