How will Thomas Tuchel fare as the new England manager? | The Premier League Panel
Who's to blame for everything that's gone wrong at Manchester United - and what can they do to fix it? And how will Thomas Tuchel fare as the new England manager? Our expert panel has the answers.
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00:00Well, I suppose one thing we do need to move on to now is to talk about Thomas Tuchel,
00:03but there's a bit of a Manchester United link here, isn't there, Rich? Because he was one of
00:06the managers who was rumoured to be looked at if they did remove Eric Ten Hag over the summer.
00:12Do you think United have missed a trick here, and do you think that's going to be England's gain,
00:16I suppose?
00:17I do, to be honest. I think Thomas Tuchel was certainly the most credible candidate to replace
00:23Ten Hag. I think if you looked at who could go into Old Trafford now and get an immediate
00:28improvement in the squad, and who was arguably the one coach who was available, who was a better
00:33coach than Eric Ten Hag, it was Thomas Tuchel. And now it transpires that he actually signed
00:38his contract on the 8th of October, which was when United had their meeting,
00:43their executive committee in London. So it was a non-starter, this international break,
00:48and it must be reiterated that United have insisted that there was never any suggestion
00:52Ten Hag was going to lose his job this early in the season. As journalists, we always maybe try
00:57and read between the lines when they say there's no comment there, but there was no comment because
01:01there genuinely was nothing to guide on. So I think United have missed the chance in the sense that
01:08who else would you go for now? If you were to sack Ten Hag right now, who is available,
01:13who you'd go for? Gareth Southgate is the only other manager who's become available since the
01:17summer, and he's recently ruled himself out of taking any job for the next year. So you've lost
01:21Southgate for a year. You've not got Tuchel now for what, if it goes well, sort of two years,
01:26three, four years long-term as well. Pochettino, he's tied down in the US now to the next World Cup
01:31as well. Who are the candidates who are available? I think you'd be taking a risk. I don't think
01:36there is any candidate right now who is unanimously better than Eric Ten Hag, which might sound
01:41ludicrous because we've just been explaining the flaws Ten Hag has for the last half an hour or so,
01:46but who is actually going to be less risk averse? Graham Potter is someone else who's
01:52available, but is he actually better than Ten Hag? I think the jury's out. I think from an
01:56England point of view, it almost sounds like the set up to a joke, doesn't it? That we've
02:01got an Irishman and a Welshman discussing the England manager. But from a Welsh perspective,
02:08I'm quite worried because England seems to have a competent manager now, and they might actually
02:12have something to get overexcited about every four years rather than these sort of false dawns.
02:17But I think from the outside, he looks like the type of manager England need. He's a serial
02:21winner. He's got that knack in cup competitions as well. It will suit him, I think, not having
02:27to have the day-to-day rigmarole of dealing with players and egos. I think it will be quite
02:31refreshing for him to only have to sort of have those international breaks. And yeah, I do think
02:37it could be the perfect match, to be honest. I think as an England fan and an Englishman
02:43on this panel, it was very much pro-Gareth Southgate. I think to say we've got a competent
02:47manager now seems a little bit harsh on the guy who's just left the job. But Michael,
02:53you know, what do you expect Thomas Tuchel to bring that's different to what Southgate did?
02:57How's this going to change for England going forward? I think there'll be more tactical
03:03discipline. I think there'll be more, I think it'll be more of a winning culture,
03:10which I think is what the FA will want. Southgate, in my eyes, did a fantastic job and did,
03:14you know, so many things he improved on the England set up before when he came in. But
03:20ultimately, I think when it came to the crunch moments of making the big decisions in the big
03:24moments in finals and semifinals, I think Southgate did flop a little bit in that regard.
03:30So I think that maybe the FA are looking at this and saying Southgate has put in these fantastic
03:34foundations. Now it is the opportunity for an elite manager who will bring real tactical pedigree
03:40to build on that. I think that, you know, there's a lot of talk about coaching and the ability to
03:45coach players. It doesn't happen at international level. You are given these group of players and
03:49you just have to work with them. You have to pretty quickly implement a system and a style,
03:54but he's not going to have the opportunity to improve players as such. So I think it's
03:58really interesting one. I'm not totally sure I share Richard's enthusiasm because I think that
04:04Tuchel is an elite level manager. I think, for instance, he would have been the standard
04:07candidate for United in the summer. But I just don't know. International management is just such
04:14a different ball game. It's a completely different set up to club football. And that doesn't
04:19necessarily mean I think he will fail. I'm just less certain he will be able to reach the sort
04:26of levels he has at the club, in the club game. And I think that as well, you know, he is a
04:31character who does fall out with people, Thomas Tuchel. I think the FA could be quite difficult
04:36to work with personally as well. So I think that will be an interesting dynamic of all of this.
04:44I don't know. I don't know. It's the honest answer. I think that we will, I mean, you always
04:49say in football, we'll have to see over the fullness of time, but I'm just less certain
04:53that this is the right way to go. And I think if you look at the managers who have succeeded in
04:57recent years at international level, you've got for instance, the Spain manager who worked for
05:02the underage groups previously, Scoloni at Argentina. He wasn't this big high profile
05:09manager who came in. In general, actually, it's sometimes it's people who are more
05:15familiar with the setup, with the country as well that actually do succeed. So I'm not sure. I'm
05:22really not sure at this stage. Yeah, it's a great point that club management and international
05:26management are very different games and often the people who succeed at one don't necessarily work
05:30out well with the other. You did also raise, of course, the point about his personality. He does
05:35have a reputation as being difficult to work with, not just in terms of the way he builds his
05:39relationship with boards, but also the fact that he's a very disciplinarian manager. He can fall
05:44out with his players. He's not about yelling at them, quite frankly, as well, if they don't do
05:47things he likes. I mean, Rich, is that something that would concern you if you were an Englishman
05:52and an England fan? Is that something where you think could be a problem? Do you think you'll,
05:56you know, this current squad of England players will react well to? Yeah, there's a lot of caveats
06:01there, aren't there, to my answer. I guess that is the problem, isn't it? Because it feels like
06:05England have been, their success in the last few years into Southgate has been, has had its
06:12foundations in this sort of goodwill and camaraderie and this togetherness that everyone's
06:17got a smile on their face. No matter what's happened at club level, you go away with England
06:21and that's now their respite, where it used to feel the other way around, that you go to England
06:25duty and you have sort of a, just this grimace on your face for two weeks and you just, you know,
06:30you had all the tabloid sort of coverage of international tournaments. And now it's like
06:34a proper feel-good sort of factor around England. And it does feel like that Tuchel maybe won't be
06:41the same sort of back-slapping manager and won't be inviting the media to play darts and maybe
06:46won't have as many inflatables in the pool and stuff. But maybe that is also a criticism of
06:51England from the outside that they became a bit too sort of holiday camp. There was maybe a bit
06:56too much sort of fun to it all, which I know you want it to be fun and you want players to be
07:02relaxed. And a lot of management this day, this day and age is about sort of people pleasing.
07:07It's about managing egos as much as it is about what you do on the pitch. So it's definitely a
07:12different approach. I think there'll be certain players who fall out of favour, certain players
07:15who are now going to be given a chance at international level for England. The other
07:20aspect as well, which I guess I didn't touch upon earlier is Tuchel does like to quite intensely work
07:26on training methods and stuff like that. He's got a very limited time, isn't he, over these
07:29international breaks and these international camps to actually implement the style of play
07:33straight away. So, yeah, it is just absolutely fascinating. But I guess a change, a change in
07:39approach is required. But as Michael made a point there, that it is a very good point that
07:46at international level, it isn't someone who's great at club level who succeeds. So
07:52time will tell on this one from my point of view. Yeah, I didn't realise up until you mentioned it
07:56that how much I wanted to see Thomas Tuchel jumping about on an inflatable unicorn like
08:00Bukayo Saka a couple of years ago. We're nearly out of time, but Michael, I did just want to ask
08:05very quickly, because I think it would be remiss as you spend a lot of time covering Manchester
08:08City not to bring it up. Have England missed a trick by not talking to Pep Guardiola? I mean,
08:14would that just all have been a pipe dream trying to appoint him? Or was there ever any serious
08:18prospect that that could happen? I think the FA obviously liked Guardiola. Why would you not? I
08:25think he was the first choice candidate. I think there is a growing sense that there is a chance
08:31Guardiola could stick around for another year at City, which would very conveniently bring us up
08:37to about 18 months' time, which you know what could happen then. Listen, I know we're running
08:41out of time, but Guardiola, he has spoken about the fact that he wants to become an international
08:46manager. He wants to be given that opportunity to succeed. He loves English football. It makes
08:52sense to me. He knows the players. I think that if the opportunity did ever arise,
08:56Pep Guardiola would be very interested in the opportunity to become England manager.