THOMAS TUCHEL shut down a reporter from ITV after being questioned about the pressure that England players face ahead of the World Cup.
The Three Lions put on another underwhelming display at Wembley just 72 days before the tournament as they suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Japan on Tuesday.
Brighton winger Kaoru Mitoma scored the decisive goal for the visitors to cap off a brilliant counter attack.
England failed to get back into the game, with Tuchel and his players booed off the pitch at full-time.
After the game, the head coach insisted that his players are not being held back by the pressure that comes with representing the nation.
Asked if the England shirt weighs heavy on them by a reporter from ITV Sport, Tuchel paused for a moment before responding: “No. I don’t think so.
“I don’t want to engage in this discussion because I think it’s very clear what we want to do and how we want to play and focus more on principles, on the doing, on the thinking, what it means.
“It comes with pressure. It comes with noise, playing for England. That’s just how it is.
“We need to see how the players adapt to that and we can only see it if we try it, so we tried it and we have to learn from it.”
Reflecting on the result, he also admitted: “For sure it hurts. It’s always painful to lose, and to lose at home hurts a lot.
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“We got punished for not a lot, for one counter attack in the first half.
“We need these matches, we know it is a tough opponent, we had several players not available.
“A new formation again, we tried a lot of stuff, and we need to learn.
“It was only a false nine on one side, on the other side it was a normal nine. We need to put it into perspective, it is not the end of the world.
“It is never nice and we don’t like it but it’s not a question of false nine or normal nine, it is a matter of performing and making a statement, and winning one-on-ones, and being brave.
“We can do better but it is a well drilled team that we are playing against, a new formation and new players.”
England next face New Zealand and Costa Rica as part of their final tournament preparations in June.
By then, Tuchel will have named his full squad for the summer.
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ENGLAND’s final friendly on home soil before heading to the States didn’t exactly go to plan, as they were beaten 1-0 by an impressive Japan team.
The Three Lions got off to a horror start at Wembley when Cole Palmer, auditioning for his World Cup spot, gave the ball away to Karou Mitoma, who started AND finished a brilliant Japan move to open the scoring.
Elliot Anderson rattled the crossbar from range, before Eredivisie top scorer Ayase Ueda shook the frame of Pickford’s goal too before the first 45 minutes were up.
The second half was more of the same…
England were struggling to create any real chances, with the visitors hitting them on the break, their attacks coming close as they skinned home defenders for fun.
Tuchel’s side will need to massively improve on that if they want any chance of glory in the summer.
Find out how SunSport’s Lloyd Canfield rated the England players here…
