Thomas Tuchel called for “perspective” as the England boss insisted Tuesday’s woeful 1-0 defeat against Japan was a valuable lesson on the road to the World Cup.
Kaoru Mitoma’s first-half goal at Wembley condemned England to their first ever loss against an Asian nation at the 11th attempt.
In their last friendly on home turf before the World Cup kicks off in June, Tuchel’s side delivered a second successive lacklustre performance and were booed off at the final whistle.
Hot on the heels of Friday’s drab 1-1 draw against Uruguay, England again lacked drive and cohesion.
Tuchel, who was without Harry Kane, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka in both friendlies, conceded it was painful to watch England struggle to find any rhythm, but the Germain claimed it was still a useful exercise.
“For sure it hurts. It’s always painful to lose, and to lose at home hurts a lot. We got punished for not a lot, for one counter attack in the first half,” he said.
“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.
“We need to put it into perspective, it is not the end of the world.”
With England captain Kane sidelined by a minor injury, Tuchel opted to use Phil Foden as a ‘false nine’ with Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers and Anthony Gordon joining the attack.
Tuchel’s plan backfired as England barely mustered a shot against Japan’s tenacious pressing and clever use of possession.
“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,” said Tuchel, who hauled off Foden and Palmer in the second half.
“We can do better but it is a well drilled team that we are playing against, a new formation and new players.”
Tuchel had no qualms about the importance to England of Bayern Munich striker Kane, who is the Three Lions’ record goalscorer and has been in prolific form for his club this season.
“Why would Argentina not rely on (Lionel) Messi or Portugal not rely on Cristiano Ronaldo? This is totally normal. Key figures left camp for us and we saw that a bit. We lacked a punch,” Tuchel said.
“In the first half we played way too narrow. We didn’t want that but we made the pitch too narrow for ourselves.
“In the second half we were more dynamic, we used the width more with our wingers and full-backs, which is what we wanted to do the whole time. We took more risks and had chances but we could not convert.”
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