Teamwork at its best, says Tuchel after England’s statement win against Serbia at the Rajko Mitic Stadium yesterday.
Following England’s 5-0 thumping of Serbia to take control of their World Cup qualification group and launch the head coach’s reign, Thomas Tuchel hailed “teamwork in its purest form.”
England is now seven points clear at the top of Group K after goals from Harry Kane, Noni Madueke, Ezri Konsa, Marc Guéhi, and Marcus Rashford stunned the Rajko Mitic Stadium crowd. Tuchel was thrilled with his team’s best performance during his tenure and praised his players for their collective effort in humiliating the hosts in Belgrade. His team has won their first five qualifiers.
“I think it was teamwork in its purest form,” the German said. “We helped each other out, we had the right intensity in the right moments.
“We put the work in to not allow one shot on target for a strong home team. If you want to do this you need to support each other, you need to play disciplined and keep the intensity up. This is what we did and the players did excellent, so full credit to the team.
“There’s never a perfect performance, but it was a very, very good performance. I’m just glad for the players that they could show to the fans and to you guys what they’re capable of.”
After Saturday’s disappointing 2-0 victory over Andorra, Tuchel came under fire, but he believed that this match would raise England’s level.
“I love what I see and I feel what I feel during camp on a daily basis,” he said. “We had a bit of a stop‑start game against Andorra and the result was maybe not the result that everyone expected. I kept them in the belief but at some point you need to prove as a player that it’s not just words from your coach.
“I said we put all the effort in against Andorra but you don’t get the praise for it, so today I’m happy that the players get the reward and that they have this outstanding result in a very difficult environment. Of course it’s a perfect result and it’s a perfect moment for having five different goalscorers.”