Tuchel not concerned by lacklustre England performance

Tuchel not concerned by lacklustre England performanceThomas Tuchel has insisted England will get better when the competition improves after a lacklustre performance against New Zealand on Saturday.

>Harry Kane scored the only goal as England laboured to a 1-0 win over a New Zealand side currently ranked 85th in the world. The Three Lions experimented heavily in the red-hot Tampa heat, with two entirely different teams featuring in either half.

>As a result of the conditions and changes, England lacked rhythm, in a fixture played at training ground pace. Despite that, Tuchel is not concerned, and insisted his team will continue to improve as the World Cup approaches.

England face Costa Rica in a second warm-up fixture, before opening their World Cup campaign against Croatia on June 19th.

>“The better the opponent gets, the better we will get,” Tuchel said.

>“I was happier with the second half. I thought we had more hunger and more desire. We played better but did not score.

>“We didn’t play according to our plan in the first half. It slowed the game down, but it was better in the second half.

>“We will acclimatise to the humidity and the sun while we are here. Tomorrow will be recovery day, then we have two days to prepare for Costa Rica. Then a chunk of players will get more minutes. The Arsenal players are in now, which is good because it gives us energy and quality, and then we have another one and a half days off.

“Then we go to Kansas and prepare for Croatia.”

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