Thomas Tuchel believes England are ready to “prove a point” in Serbia having seen more positives than negatives in Saturday’s forgettable World Cup qualification victory against Andorra.
The Euro 2024 runners-up continued their unblemished start to Group K at Villa Park by winning a fourth match without conceding.
Christian Garcia’s own goal gave dominant, if shot shy, England a deserved half-time lead, with Declan Rice heading home Reece James’ outstanding cross to seal a 2-0 victory against the well-drilled microstate.
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But, in truth, Saturday was always more about the goal tally than the outcome, with attention immediately switching from Birmingham to Belgrade and Tuesday’s tough assignment against Serbia.
“We will try to prove a point — to win and put out the next performance, and to be tough in the circumstances,” England boss Tuchel said.
“We expect a very emotional stadium, we expect an emotional crowd. We expect maybe, yeah, to adapt to the circumstances. We don’t know what the pitch looks like. Make no excuses.
“Then we come up against a very physical team. They will attack us in a man-man situation. This is what we see until now.
“They have high quality up front — international top quality up front — so they play very direct and we have to step up to this and adapt to the circumstances, adapt to the opponent and then prove the point that we’re a strong group, and we’re on the right way. Because I feel like we had an excellent five days now, and it’s on us now.
“Two days to prepare for Tuesday and hopefully prove the point there too that we are ready for that, adapt to what’s coming, accept the physicality, overcome the adversity and get another win.”
Thomas Tuchel’s England struggled to a 2-0 win over Andorra in World Cup qualifying. Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images
England will certainly need to perform better in Serbia than they did at Villa Park, but Tuchel was much happier with his side’s display than in June’s 1-0 victory in the reverse fixture.
“I think there are a lot of chances for goals and a lot of half-chances where we can be more clinical, have to be more clinical,” he said. “But overall there are much more positive things than the negatives today.
“I think it was a good step, tried to speed up the game constantly. We had to give everything to the match, of course, and play against a deep block. But there are no concerns today.
“There are still things to improve, but the direction was the right direction after the four days of training. It was a good performance, a deserved result.”
UEFA Group K
GPPTSGD1 – England39+62 – Albania45+13 – Serbia24+34 – Latvia34-25 – Andorra40-81 qualifies / 2 in playoffs
One of the main positives at Villa Park was the performance of debutant Elliot Anderson, who impressed in midfield and so nearly grabbed a goal.
“He’s just a very, very good football player,” Tuchel said of the Nottingham Forest player. “He has the physicality, he’s a very mobile six.
“He has the body, he loves to defend, he loves to put his body inside to win duels. He loves passing, he loves to break the lines and he’s just very mobile in his game. It was a pleasure to see.
“It was a bit of a nervous start to the week, which is also nice to see — that not everything is normal for the guys, that they’re still nervous to come to camp and are not afraid to admit it. But very, very quickly he adapted to the quality and then we thought ‘why not to give him his debut straightaway?’
“I think the team around him made it as easy as possible for him and he had a very strong performance.”
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