Thomas Tuchel concerned over patchwork pitch for England’s World Cup warm-up
Thomas Tuchel is a “little bit worried and concerned” about the patchwork pitch awaiting England in Tampa but says it will not impact his team selection for Saturday’s friendly against New Zealand.
The back-to-back European Championship finalists landed in Florida at the start of the week to start acclimatising to the hot and humid conditions facing teams at this summer’s World Cup.
England step up preparations with Saturday’s friendly against New Zealand at Raymond James Stadium, which is the 65,000-capacity home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League.
A grass field has recently been laid for the friendly and images of the pitch have raised concerns about how it has joined up, with Tuchel shown a picture of it on the eve of the friendly.
“I just saw it now,” the England boss said. “It will not affect my team selection because what I have heard until now is that it should be OK and we want it, of course, to be OK.
“I saw just a photo from your colleague that made me a little bit worried and concerned, but let’s decide when we are there.
“If there are any issues, we can always react to it. The plan is tomorrow to play 45, 45 minutes with two complete teams, to expose everyone to the same amount of minutes.
“Then we can continue the next three days with the same load of training. That is the plan, and at the moment we stick to the plan.”
Tuchel, whose England side start their World Cup campaign against Croatia on June 17, said: “I think tomorrow is mainly focused more on the minutes, so we will share the minutes.
“But at the same time it’s also to reconnect to our identity and the stuff that we did good, so we had a lot of meetings offensively and defensively and want to see how far we can push this already.
“It is maybe more about connections on each side, more about connections in the back four, on the side, in attack.”
England travel to Tampa with a 27-man squad, including uncapped training group members Alex Scott, Rio Ngumoha, Josh King and Ethan Nwaneri along with training goalkeeper Jason Steele.
They have helped fill gaps left by Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze after the quartet had the week off following Arsenal’s Champions League final loss to Paris Saint Germain last Saturday.
“I think there is no need to be overly disappointed and to carry it into the World Cup campaign,” Tuchel said of the Premier League champions after their penalty loss. “I don’t see that.
“I will see them tomorrow, and I think it will be no issue to lift them if needed.
“But I saw pictures and I heard messages already that they’re happy to come, the group is waiting.
“We’re in good spirits, so this is normally what helps and I think they’re very well aware of what they achieved this season.”
PA
