Thomas Tuchel’s England honeymoon is over as he gets honest after dour Andorra win

England laboured to a 1-0 win over Andorra on Saturday and manager Thomas Tuchel has made it clear that he was not happy with his side’s performance in Barcelona

The honeymoon feels well and truly over. Thomas Tuchel has overseen three straight wins, six goals for, none against and yet this was such a familiar story for England.

A tired, laboured performance against a World Cup minnow when sometimes even a thumping, resounding win is not enough. Let alone a narrow, unconvincing victory.

England boss Tuchel has inherited some issues, created a few new ones and left us all with a feeling of deja vu. You can be sure that somewhere Gareth Southgate was wearing a wry smile.

This was familiar territory for England because you are on a hiding to nothing against the smaller nations in a procession of a qualifying Group. Steve McClaren even more so. Back in 2007,

McClaren’s England were booed at half time when they were goalless against Andorra, ended up winning 3-0 with the manager storming out of the press conference, angrily shouting: “Write what you want.”

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England were goalless at half time at Espanyol’s ground but were sloppy, slow and pedestrian. Once you set the tone in the first five minutes, the die is cast. What is harder to fathom is why Tuchel has persisted with Jordan Henderson – who turns 35 later this month – as the Ajax veteran made his first start in nearly two years.

Or Dan Burn who really does not look the part for England. Instead, the Newcastle defender looks a lumbering, pale imitation of Harry Maguire as if he is just on the pitch for his aerial threat at set pieces.

The way he got turned by Andorra substitute Guillaume Lopez late on, before Ezri Konsa made a crucial block, suggested Burn has found his level. Andorra are 173rd in the FIFA world rankings.

Cole Palmer was terrific as a substitute at the Euros, but we are yet to see the best of him from the start in an England shirt. There was no zip about Morgan Rogers. Jude Bellingham got bogged down by it all.

Harry Kane scored the all-important goal after good work from England’s two best performers. It was Curtis Jones’ forward pass which unlocked Andorra’s defence and then Noni Madueke’s assist after Kane’s initial effort was blocked.

At least, unlike with McClaren, there was straight talking from Tuchel who was puling no punches, was not afraid to rattle a few cages or upset some egos. As far as Tuchel was concerned, there is no risk about telling the players some home truths.

Tuchel said: “What risk? You were in the stadium. What should I tell you? That we played a good match and are happy? The risk is only that you exaggerate it and make something of it that was not there. Everything I said I said already to the team. There is no harm done.

“We were not happy and no single player will be happy with what we showed. Why would the coach be? And why would we be shy of saying so? If we want top get better we first need to address that we were not happy with the end of both halves.

“I didn’t like the attitude in the end. I didn’t like the attitude or the energy level and how that dropped. We lacked the urgency at the end. We played with fire. We didn’t play like we have to play in a World Cup qualifier when we were only 1-0 up.”

Tuchel insisted that his searing criticism extended to himself and he always includes himself. But it also sounded like there will be a tough inquest into what went wrong but the England boss expects a strong reaction against Senegal in Tuesday’s friendly.

Tuchel added: “This is a top group. I love the players. I love their character. They know that they under performed. There is not a big thing in it.

“We know we under-performed and we are open about it and I think they are eager to do it better. We will now show them exactly what we want from them and how to it better in the video session tomorrow and the day after.”

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