"England head into tomorrow's World Cup qualifier against Andorra in a no-win position. A resounding win will be met with a shrug of the shoulders as 'it's only Andorra' and any other result will bring widespread criticism. Thomas Tuchel found that out in the reverse fixture when his side toiled for large parts of the game in Barcelona before Harry Kane poked home the only goal."
"England under Tuchel have yet to fire. Wins over Andorra, Latvia and Albania have been laboured rather than impressive while a much-changed team put in an alarmingly poor display in losing 3-1 to Senegal at the City Ground in June. There is little need to panic, yet. England will qualify and then the true test of Tuchel will begin in the United States, Canada and Mexico."
"In sport it is not about what you have done yesterday but about what you do tomorrow to get better and so I expect a good training session from the players to be ready for tomorrow. We will face - in both matches - a deep block and a 5-4-1 for sure in the first match and it is the challenge to overcome that quickly and aggressively and play with more rhythm than we did in the first match [against Andorra]."
England approach the Andorra qualifier in a no-win situation where a big victory will be dismissed and any lesser result will invite criticism. Recent wins have been unconvincing and a rotated side lost 3-1 to Senegal, exposing inconsistent form. Qualification is still expected, but the true assessment will come at the World Cup in North America. The upcoming matches against Andorra and Serbia are likely to be low on possession and high on physical contests, requiring quick, aggressive solutions to break deep defensive blocks. Multiple key players are unavailable through injury, necessitating further squad adjustment.
Read at 101GREATGOALS.COM
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]