Thomas Tuchel identified his wingers as the players that need to improve following England’s 2-0 win over Albania in his first game as Three Lions boss.
Myles Lewis-Skelly opened the scoring on his senior England debut before Harry Kane added the second goal of the evening late on, sending Tuchel’s men to the top of Group K after the first matchday.
But despite an “exciting” introduction to life as a national team coach, Tuchel admitted that England “struggled to find solutions and where to take the risks” in the final third, citing “a little bit more frustration” in the second half.
Making comparisons to the first half, in which England looked to be the dominant side against Sylvinho’s Shqiperi, the 51-year-old told reporters in his post-match press conference that “we did not play with the same confidence in our structure.”
“We need to stay with the belief and maybe find a [few] more open spaces,” he explained, highlighting the flanks as key areas for improvement ahead of Monday’s meeting with Latvia.
“Both of our wingers who started were not as impactful as they can be, as they are in club football,” Tuchel admitted, expressing something of a bewilderment after the duo appeared “decisive in training and very good in the last weeks with their clubs”.
Reflecting on England’s weaker performance in the second half at Wembley on Friday, Tuchel commented: “We wanted to increase the rhythm and the risk a little bit in the second half and have one player more in the offensive line but I felt we were not disciplined enough in the structure.”
“It’s a difficult opponent, they play an unorthodox style,” he accepted, adding that “Spain struggled, Croatia struggled and Italy struggled in the group phase [of Euro 2024] and we saw this kind of opponent today.”
England’s match against Latvia gets underway at 19:45 GMT on Monday, 24 March.