If you are a fan of English football it has been a bit of a strange week hasn’t it?
You would have seen yet another capitulation in a big knockout match when England were architects of their own downfall against Argentina, followed by excuse making of the highest order from the man who was employed to ensure the very opposite would happen to the defeats of the past, to then witness a 10 goal thriller on Saturday, which went against all those cover ups.
Apparently England went out of the World Cup because it isn’t in their DNA to keep the football, preferring to concede territory on the pitch and ultimately invite the opposition to beat you.
As a Luton fan who follows England, that mumbo jumbo doesn’t carry much weight with me any longer.
Jack Wilshere has shown that if there is a desire and a will to coach a team to keep the ball it is perfectly possible, and he has done it multiple levels below the one Tuchel is operating in.
It is fair to say that Wilshere took time to assess what he had at his disposal, often to the detriment of results, but let me take you back to the final international break of last season.
While Tuchel was giving his senior players a rest at a time where actually coaching them might have laid the foundations of a new frame of mind, Wilshere spent the fortnight working hard with his squad, transforming their style completely.
In just two short weeks, Wilshere turned Luton into the team he wanted them to be, a side who kept the ball, moved it quickly in a forward direction and looked to get at teams and score goals.
Gone was the slow, ponderous, sideways and backwards football and a new era of uplifting, attacking, possession dominant ball had arrived.
It led to winning a trophy at Wembley and a run which if replicated for the entirety of a season would break League 1 records.
He did this with lower league players, although to be fair to the likes of Jordan Clark, Liam Walsh and Kasey Palmer and others, all of them exude the class of the level above.
So, Mr Tuchel, your excuses for failing don’t really wash. Wilshere has shown that top class coaches can coach an identity into a side and in his case can do it in a short space of time rather than the 18 months you have had to do it. It is a pity this was seemingly beyond you.
Hopefully the FA show some balls (yes I am laughing internally as I type this) and relieve the excuse making whinger of his duties.
If not, maybe Tuchel can quit with the lazy stereotypes and get down to coaching his world class talent to play the kind of football that he promised and Wilshere is delivering.
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