Thomas Tuchel Breaks Silence On England Records

Thomas Tuchel said he has not spoken to England’s players about any potential records they could set in Albania as his only focus is on the hunger to compete and kick on towards the World Cup.

Gareth Southgate’s successor began his reign with March’s 2-0 Wembley win against Albania and ends his first year in charge against the same opponents in Tirana on Sunday.

England arrive in Albania having followed up last month’s early World Cup qualification by winning a seventh Group K match without conceding — an impressive record that opposition manager Sylvinho joked was “disgusting.”

Sunday offers them the chance to become the first European side to play at least six World Cup qualifiers and win them all without conceding, but that could not be further from Tuchel’s mind.

“We didn’t speak a single word about that,” he said at Air Albania Stadium on the eve of the game.

“We made sure yesterday that we had yesterday the training session that we had. The quality and the mentality of the guys that didn’t play was on the highest level, which was a pure pleasure.

“It just showed me that we are going in the right way.

“Everyone is ready to play, everyone is ready to start. Competition is still on, the hunger is still on to be on the pitch tomorrow. That is the most important.

“Everything we talk about is about the process and the things we can influence. We need to get the foundation right to have a chance to get these records.

“Just by thinking about it or talking about it, nothing will change.

“We need to deliver tomorrow again and, like I said, the feeling and the trust is absolutely there because I witness this in the camp so I trust my players to perform again tomorrow.”

England arrived in Albania with a 23-man squad after Ezri Konsa withdrew from the camp with a calf complaint.

That means there will be at least one change from Thursday’s 2-0 win against Serbia, when Jude Bellingham, Eberechi Eze and Phil Foden impressed off the bench.

The latter was deployed in a false nine role having replaced captain Harry Kane but Tuchel says he is unlikely to go into next summer’s World Cup with just one out-and-out striker.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said when that was mentioned. “It is possible but I don’t think that will happen. There is still a long way to go.

“We will go with a very balanced squad, I guess this as I’ve never picked a World Cup squad.

“This is something for between March and May but the general idea is to pick a balanced squad with different characters and qualities.

“I cannot rule out going with just one striker but it is very likely we will have more classic number nines.”