Thomas Tuchel refuses to speak in German when asked at first England press conference
Thomas Tuchel refused to speak in German when asked to give an answer in his native tongue at his first press conference as England manager.
The former Chelsea boss spoke on Friday morning after unveiling his first Three Lions squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley. Tuchel will take his place in the dugout after succeeding Gareth Southgate following England’s defeat by Spain in the final of Euro 2024.
When discussing his squad, Tuchel was asked whether he could ‘bring it home’ by a German reporter, and was invited to answer in both languages. But he replied: “I would like to answer this just in English out of respect for where we are and the others in the room.”
The biggest surprise in Tuchel’s squad is the inclusion of Jordan Henderson. The Ajax midfielder returns to the Three Lions fold having featured 38 times for the Dutch giants in all competitions this season, providing six assists.
Explaining his decision, Tuchel said: “Jordan is a serial winner. He is captain of Ajax. He is available and has played a lot of matches. What he brings to every team is leadership, character, personality, energy.
“He makes sure that everyone lives by standards and with this characteristic he embodies everything that we try to build. We try to build a team for our fans and a team that they are proud of and can identity with.
“Jordan embodies everything that we want from this team.”
Marcus Rashford also returns to the squad following his January move to Aston Villa on loan from Manchester United. Rashford had fallen down the pecking order but has got his career back on track in the West Midlands.
“With Marcus, he is a familiar face but a different situation,” Tuchel added. “I felt that he had a huge impact at Aston Villa, he made a huge impact from the bench mostly. The impact was impressive.
“The physical impact was impressive and most importantly, his work rate, his defensive ability and tracking back was impressive. I had the strong feeling that we should nominate him, bring him in and to push him to stay on that level to not fall back on old routines.
“This camp is to push him to stay on this level.”
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