Tuchel: Konsa stays in London for inspection due to calf strain, I don’t mind Foden playing No. 9
6686 Sports News on November 16th. At 1 o'clock in the morning Beijing time tomorrow, England will challenge Albania in the world preliminaries visiting team. Coach Tuchel attended the pre-match press conference.
My thoughts on my time coaching England
I’ve learned a lot about the job because it’s so different to coaching at a club. We all evolve together, and my assistants keep me on my toes by constantly feeding me new information, new strategies, new ways to compete, and new data on physical input and output. As coaches, they have a very deep understanding of football and can effectively influence our players.
About Foden's cameo appearance as No. 9 in the last game
If there are any problems with Kane, Foden can definitely assume this role. If Foden maintains his current competitive form, I don't mind playing him at No. 9 at all. But I have some other options that I don't want to discuss publicly yet.
As to whether they want to create history and win consecutive clean sheets (England currently maintains a 9-game winning streak with clean sheets including the World Cup and European qualifiers, and is only one game away from breaking the previous record of clean sheets won by the Spanish team before and after the 2016 European qualifiers)
I have never considered this. We just focused on the smooth flow of practice, and those players who didn't play in the last game showed a very high level and energy, which also makes me happy. Proving once again that we are moving in the right direction. Everyone is ready to play and everyone is looking forward to starting. The competition remains fierce and the players are looking forward to being on the playing field tomorrow. That's what matters most.
Will Bellingham and Foden start?
I'm not going to tell you who's going to start. I don’t know yet myself, we haven’t decided yet. I still need to talk to some players.
About Konsa and Guey’s absence
Everyone except Konsa participated in practice. Konsa felt some tightness in his calf and stayed in London for further tests. We feel sorry for Guey, who tried everything to play the second game with us but unfortunately it is confirmed that he will not be able to play. He wants to stay with the team, which shows his fighting spirit and determination. He feels that he is an important part of this team, and he is.
Rice and Anderson became the starters in the midfield
They are currently the core of the team's midfield, and they are also a very good pairing that complements each other. They have performed at the highest level for both club and national team, which is the greatest recognition for them.
About the opponent
We hope to win again. Tomorrow we will face an Albanian team that is difficult to break down. They deserved to be second in the group and they only conceded three goals, two of which were scored by us and one of which was an own goal. They have always had a lot of talented players playing in the top flight.
I think we will control the game, but just dribbling is not enough, we need to always pay attention to the opponent's defensive counterattack. We need to be diligent in converting dribbles into chances and we can expect this to be a tough game.
About the opponent player Broja
I know him very well because he was once my Chelsea player. He regularly plays for the Albanian national team, mainly as a right-sided forward, and we expect him to appear in this position tomorrow. He is fast, direct and dangerous because he always wants to score. I hope we can find a way to guard him.
