England’s Tuchel refuses to ‘sugarcoat’ criticism after dire display against Andorra

Thomas Tuchel says his England players are fully aware they under-performed in their 1-0 victory over minnows Andorra on Saturday and that he has no need to “sugarcoat” criticism.

England came under fire for their sloppy performance in the World Cup qualifier in Barcelona, where Harry Kane scored the only goal early in the second half.

They were booed after struggling to break down a team ranked 173rd in the world even though they extended Tuchel’s winning start to three games.

“I think there was commonsense straight after in the dressing room,” Tuchel told reporters on Monday, on the eve of a friendly against Senegal in Nottingham.

“We all shared the same feeling. We have to look at the side, we created an xG (expected goals) of four. If you look at the sides who played Andorra, we had more xG than them but failed to convert chances, being clinical and our efficiency, accuracy in our chances.

“We underperformed clearly in the physical input in the game which you could see on the sideline and the data. We didn’t run enough.”

The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss admitted the performance did not match the standards he has been trying to set since he took over as England boss at the start of the year.

“I protect my players, I said no names of players,” he said. “We as a team didn’t match our standards.

“I didn’t like the last 10 minutes, I felt on the sidelines. We didn’t play seriously enough to win it in the end and what we needed to do in a World Cup qualifier.

“Everything I say here I say to the players, why should I sugarcoat? There is no harm done, we can have criticism and I believe a group of players in football can speak honestly to each other.

“I always include myself in that — now it’s on us to do better. The attitude towards training and the camp and commitment is outstanding. Everybody wanted to be there and be involved, they wanted to start and wanted to play. We will analyse and try to do better.”