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England head coach Thomas Tuchel’s comments slightly overshadowed Jude Bellingham’s two goals against Norway last week.
Bellingham now has six goals at this World Cup and has had a remarkable tournament, proving huge in the most crucial moments when England needed him most. With back-to-back two-goal games in the round of 16 and quarter-finals, he was one of the main reasons why England are now in the semi-finals.
But after England’s quarter-final victory over Norway, Tuchel criticized the performance from a qualitative and technical perspective, saying England “made life very difficult for us in the way we played, how we played, sloppy, with a lot of technical errors, not fast enough. We were lucky today.”
Tuchel added: “It’s a pure question of mentality; there was no problem of mentality. You could bottle it and sell it,” Tuchel said. “It’s the quality of our games. It has nothing to do with mentality, it’s about quality. We have to play better.”
Asked about Tuchel’s criticism, Bellingham replied: “Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in these conditions,” before hailing Norway as a difficult team to play against and highlighting the heat in Miami.
FOX Sports analyst Zlatan Ibrahimović believes the full context of Tuchel’s comments may not have been presented to Bellingham by the reporter, which played a role in Bellingham’s response.
“I think it’s misinformation, because if Jude had seen Tuchel’s interview, he would have responded differently – 100%,” Ibrahimović said.
Thierry Henry agreed with Zlatan’s sentiment, but also thought the back-and-forth was nothing major. Henry said there were no problems in the England camp and the focus should be on the match itself, especially with the rivalry between England and Argentina ahead of their semi-final at Atlanta Stadium on Wednesday July 15.
“Nothing has changed for me,” Henry said. “If you want to see what I said, watch it again.
“We have to talk about the game. That’s the most important thing. What animosity? There’s no animosity there. There’s nothing there. And I agree with Zlatan. He didn’t know how it was phrased to Tuchel. That’s it. I’ll leave it at that.”
“They play well the way they want to,” Henry added. “They fight and come back. We’ll think about the style later.”
FOX Sports analyst Alexi Lalas had no problem with the back-and-forth between Bellingham and Tuchel.
“I don’t think it’s a problem. In fact, I love it,” Lalas said.
“I think it’s important that Tuchel does something a little different in the way he reacted and makes sure the players know they have a lot of work to do and that they can and must improve if they ever hope to return home.
“And I like the fact that Jude stood up for himself and his teammates. So, I don’t think the dynamic changes. I still think they respect each other, even if they don’t agree with each other, maybe in this case.”
England will face Argentina on Wednesday July 15 at Atlanta Stadium for a place in the World Cup final on Sunday July 19 at New York/New Jersey Stadium. Spain have already confirmed their place in the final after beating France in the other semi-final in Dallas.
