Thomas Tuchel confirms he has ‘spoken’ to Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden after Albania struggles | OneFootball

England manager Thomas Tuchel says he has spoken to Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden after the pair struggled against Albania.

Both Rashford and Foden were substituted on the 74th minute just before Harry Kane scored England’s second of the match to all but secure victory.

Whilst the Aston Villa forward showed flashes of promise and worked tirelessly when the Three Lions needed to defend, current Premier League Player of the Year Foden was disappointing on the other wing, failing to make an impact throughout.

Depsite the duo’s issues, Tuchel was happy with the effort they made without the ball, but demanded more of an impact be made when England attack.

“I’ve spoken to both of them, also in front of the group, they know that I appreciate the effort, especially off the ball,” Tuchel said.

“We can see in the numbers and when we watch the match again how much effort they put into defending high and into the counter-press, also in their sprinting numbers.

“Marcus had a lot of runs when we had the ball, where we did not see him, where we did not use him. He was a little bit unlucky maybe with the timing. From time to time we oversaw him. Phil is just maybe not finding the momentum at the moment that he can have.

“But both of them are very positive, have every right to be positive and know exactly what we want from them. Ideally we try to bring them in more one-on-one situations and ideally they have the confidence to take the one-on-ones.

“Phil needs maybe a little bit closer connections to a No 10 than we could provide in this match. And Marcus created one big chance for Jude Bellingham, and, like I said, had some runs off the ball where we did not use him.

“But, off the ball, the effort was there and that’s what counts.”

Tuchel also suggested he could put out a similar team against Latvia, but confirmed the duo would not be penalised after Friday night’s performance.

“At the moment, no one will be dropped from a performance point of view. We did what was needed. We can do better and have stuff to improve and we will focus on that. If we think some fresh legs can help then we’re not shy to do it. But no one needs to be dropped because he’s not good enough.”