Thomas Tuchel has dismissed concerns over England’s defensive structure ahead of Tuesday’s Nations League meeting with Czechia, instead pointing to individual errors as the cause of their recent problems.
England have conceded nine goals across their last three matches, including a 3-2 defeat to Spain in their Nations League opener.
However, Tuchel believes his side’s organised defending has improved despite the recent results.
Still a step ahead
“I felt that in terms of organised defending, block defending and active defending, we were at a higher level than in many other matches,” Tuchel said.
“If you want to look at it in isolation on how we did within the structure and in the units of the sides, I was quite happy and I think it was a step ahead.”
England’s problems against Spain largely came when they had possession, with mistakes in their build-up allowing the European champions to capitalise.
Tuchel admitted those errors cannot be repeated at international level but insisted they do not point towards a wider defensive problem.
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‘Danger to ourselves’
“We suffered clearly from individual mistakes when we had the ball, especially in the deep build-up, so that is of course something we cannot repeat. Not at this level,” Tuchel added.
“Strangely enough, when we had the ball, we were the biggest danger to ourselves around the box because we just had too many individual mistakes.”
The England boss also rejected criticism that his team lack a clear identity under his management.
Identity is clear
Tuchel believes England demonstrated their intended style against Spain and showed they were capable of competing with the reigning world and European champions.
“We showed our style and we showed our courage. The players showed an identity and they showed it throughout the 90 minutes,” he said.
“We had the world and European champions on the edge of a defeat.”
England will now look to respond against Czechia, with Tuchel expecting his side to maintain their attacking approach while eliminating the individual mistakes that contributed to their defeat in their previous outing.
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Michael Davey 
SportJustSport writers 
Simon Wilkes