Thomas Tuchel tells fans ‘don’t lose belief’ after Ghana stalemate
England have advanced to the last-32 - despite being held to a frustrating goalless draw by Ghana
Thomas Tuchel hopes England fans keep the faith after a frustrating goalless draw with Ghana dampened the feelgood factor from their World Cup opener.
Having kicked off Group L with a thrilling 4-2 victory against Croatia, England returned to earth with a bump six days later as their second group game ended in a draw for the fourth straight tournament.
Nico O’Reilly’s late effort off the crossbar and an uncharacteristically poor Harry Kane follow-up was as close as England came to breaking the deadlock in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw in Massachusetts.
But the result edges them closer to what is all but certain to be a place in the round of 32 and Tuchel hopes fans were not too disappointed by what they saw from the team.
“It is a long tournament,” the England boss said. “I think the boys tried everything and again they played with the right energy.
“I know it’s a very different game and, in this case, if one team tries to play and to run against this deep block and you don’t find the spaces, it is difficult for you to create chances it can be difficult to watch.
“It is not as exciting as two teams trying to win it in a more open game. We know.
“We always try to entertain our fans. It was difficult today. I hope they don’t lose belief. It is a long way to go.
“Credit to our opponent and I just feel that I was right. We play in a very difficult group.”
Tuchel said it “takes two to tango” when asked about the performance being what former England striker Alan Shearer called a “reality check” during coverage of the game.
Failing to beat the lowest-ranked side of a strong group saw the England boss face a variety of questions, including whether they are too reliant on skipper Kane for goals.
“I mean, does Argentina rely to heavily on (Lionel) Messi and France rely too heavily on Kylian Mbappe? It’s just what it is,” he said.
“They are world-class players and they do normally what they do, so everyone is pushing and we had three different goalscorers in the first match.
“To rely on Harry, it’s just a natural thing because he loves the responsibility and he takes it. He was not involved as much as we would like to, but it was just so, so narrow.
“Our two central defenders were responsible for the build-up and then it was basically eight against 10, so it was difficult to find space.
“But little moments he had were just unlucky and I think the last one is normally a clear goal and would have got us a deserved win.
“We rely on Harry because we can, because he’s our forward but we don’t over-rely on him.”