Thomas Tuchel says he “felt tension and pressure on the shoulders” of the England players at last summer’s European Championship and hopes to “turn this around” ahead of his first games as the team’s new manager. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00About a third of the players in your squad have won major trophies with their clubs.
00:04We look at, obviously, Bellingham and Foden and James, players like that.
00:09So we know that they've got a winning mentality.
00:11So this is a very old question with England.
00:14What is it? Is it psychological with England? Is it the shirt?
00:21Yeah, I heard this a lot, that the shirt, it's a heavy shirt.
00:24It is, in fact, not.
00:27It's a high-quality shirt and it will even weigh less when we come to America
00:32because they already work on a shirt that adapts to the climate there.
00:38So the shirt is not heavy in reality.
00:41But, of course, I know what the players mean.
00:44And, you know, it maybe is another way to put it.
00:48What I felt watching the Euros,
00:51I felt tension and pressure on the shoulders of the players.
00:55And it felt to me that they were more afraid of...
00:57They were playing for not to lose
01:01and not to have even more pressure added maybe in the home country
01:05than the excitement to maybe make something special happen.
01:09And I think we need to turn this around
01:11because, as you said, we have so many experienced players,
01:15so many players who won the trophies with their clubs.
01:18And I think we have every right to be self-confident.
01:22But every journey starts, as it is, with the first match and the first steps.
01:26So the very first steps we did excellent.
01:28And now we have to prove the point that we are ready for that.
01:31And we will have six camps to, first of all, qualify
01:36and then make our very best in America.