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England manager Thomas Tuchel’s comments slightly overshadowed Jude Bellingham’s two goals against Norway last week.
Bellingham now has six goals in this World Cup and has had an extraordinary tournament, standing out in the most crucial moments, when England needed him most. With consecutive two-goal matches in the round of 16 and quarter-finals, he has been one of the main reasons why England are now in the semi-finals.
But after England’s quarter-final victory over Norway, Tuchel criticized the performance from a technical and quality point of view, saying that England “made our lives very difficult by the way we played, by the way we played, sloppy, a lot of technical errors, not fast enough. We were lucky today.”
Tuchel added: “It’s a matter of pure mentality; there was no mentality problem. You could bottle it and sell it,” Tuchel said. “It’s the quality of our games. It has nothing to do with mentality; it’s about quality. We need to play better.”
When Bellingham was asked about the criticism of Tuchel, he said: “Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those conditions,” before praising Norway as a difficult team to play against and pointing to the heat in Miami.
FOX Sports analyst Zlatan Ibrahimović believes the journalist may not have presented Bellingham with the full context of Tuchel’s comments, which influenced Bellingham’s response.
“I think it is misinformation, because if Jude had seen the interview with Tuchel, he would have answered differently: 100%,” Ibrahimović said.
Thierry Henry agreed with Zlatan’s sentiment, but also believed that the back-and-forth was unimportant. Henry said there are no problems in the England camp and the focus should be on the game itself, especially with the rivalry between England and Argentina ahead of their semi-final at Atlanta Stadium on Wednesday, July 15.
“Nothing has changed for me,” Henry said. “If you want to see what I said, look at it again.
“We need to talk about the game. That’s the most important thing. What animosity? There’s no animosity there. There’s nothing there. And I agree with Zlatan. I didn’t know how he expressed it to Tuchel. That’s it. I’ll leave it there.”
“They’re playing well the way they want to play,” Henry added. “They are fighting and coming back. We will think about the style later.”
FOX Sports analyst Alexi Lalas had no problems with the exchange between Bellingham and Tuchel.
“I don’t think it’s a problem. In fact, I love it,” Lalas said.
“I think it’s important for Tuchel to do something a little different in terms of the way he reacted and to make sure the players know that they have a lot of work to do and that they can and must improve if they ever hope to return home.
“And I love the fact that Jude stood up for himself and stood up for his teammates. So I don’t think the dynamic will change. I still think they respect each other, even if they don’t agree with each other, maybe in this case.”
England will face Argentina on Wednesday, July 15 at Atlanta Stadium for a place in the World Cup final on Sunday, July 19 at New York/New Jersey Stadium. Spain has already confirmed its place in the final after beating France in the other semifinal held in Dallas.
