Thomas Tuchel has revealed his mother finds Jude Bellingham‘s fiery temperament on the pitch ‘repulsive’.
The England manager praised the ‘edge’ the Real Madrid star brings to his team but admitted he must channel it towards his opponents – and not ‘intimidate’ team-mates.
Bellingham lost his rag after England’s 3-1 defeat by Senegal on Tuesday night, chasing down the fourth official and booting a water cooler.
He was furious at the decision to disallow his late equaliser following a Levi Colwill handball in the build-up. Harry Kane had to shepherd him back onto the pitch at full time to applaud the England supporters in Nottingham.
TalkSPORT put it to Tuchel that some England fans feel the Three Lions would be better off without Bellingham, to which he replied: ‘I struggle to see that.
‘I think it has to be the other way around, how we can have the best version of him and the best acceptance and that people understand what he’s bringing to us and that he’s bringing a certain edge.
‘But I see that it can create mixed emotions. I see this with my parents, with my mum that she sometimes cannot see the nice and well-educated and well-behaved guy that I see and the smile.
‘If he smiles, he wins everyone, but sometimes you see the rage, the hunger and the fire and it comes out in a way that can be a bit repulsive. For example, for my mother when she sits in front of the TV, I see that, but in general we are very happy to have him, he’s a special boy.
‘I think he has a certain something. I think he brings an edge, which we welcome and which is needed if we want to achieve big things.
‘It needs to be channelled. The edge needs to be channelled toward the opponent, towards our goal and not to intimidate team-mates, or to be over aggressive to team-mates or referees.
‘But [channel it] towards opponents, yes, and always towards the solution, meaning towards winning. We are on that, yes. He has the fire. I don’t want to dim this down. He should play with this kind of fire, that’s his strength.
‘But the fire comes also with some attributes that can intimidate you, maybe even as a team-mate.
You see sometimes the explosion towards referees and the anger in his game, so if he can channel this in the right way, and we can help him in this, then for sure he has the something that we need. And he has a certain edge that is hard to find.’
Bellingham brings fire and thunder to his football and is uncompromising in his will to get every advantage – even when he has to abandon his ‘well-behaved’ side, as Tuchel says.
It reared its head at the Euros last summer during England’s insipid stalemate with Slovenia, when an attack fizzled out and he failed to receive the ball.
Expert lip reader Jeremy Freeman told Mail Sport that Bellingham yelled:L ‘Hey, genuinely put in a f***ing pass’ and then: ‘It’s a bit late to control, f***ing pass.’
It appeared to be in the wake of a corner following a Harry Kane shot from range when Bellingham was in the box, thought it was unclear whether his ire was targeted at the striker or Kieran Trippier for his delivery from the set-piece.
He was handed a red card after Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey final defeat by Barcelona in April, where he ‘approached the referee aggressively’ and needed ‘to be restrained by team-mates’.
In February he launcehd a foul-mouthed tirade against a linesman during a tense 1-1 draw with capital city rivals Atletico.
The midfielder was dumbfounded by an early decision from the assistant referee and vented his frustration next to one of the pitchside microphones at the Bernabeu.
‘F*** you, man!’ he was heard shouting. ‘F*** off!’
In September, he was heard calling a referee a ‘piece of s***’ after he was booked during a 4-1 victory over Espanyol.
More to follow.
