Thomas Tuchel claims his mother finds Jude Bellingham’s attitude on the pitch ‘repulsive’ and admits his England teammates could be intimidated by his behaviour.
The Real Madrid midfielder has established himself as a key part of England’s system but Tuchel believes the 21-year-old’s aggression towards referees and teammates ‘needs to be channelled’.
During England’s 3-1 defeat to Senegal on Tuesday night, Bellingham berated referee Stephanie Frappart for her decision to disallow his goal for handball.
Bellingham also kicked a drinks cooler after England’s defeat at The City Ground in a repeated display of anger which fans saw during the Three Lions’ defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final last summer.
Tuchel has described Bellingham as ‘a special boy’ but has warned the Madrid midfielder that he can created ‘mixed emotions’ with supporters due to his attitude.
‘I think he has a certain something,’ Tuchel said in an interview with talkSPORT.
‘He brings an edge which we welcome and which is needed if we want to achieve big things.
‘It needs to be channelled. The edge needs to be channelled towards the opponent, towards our goal and not to intimidate teammates or to be overaggressive towards teammates or referees, but towards opponents and always towards the solution, meaning towards winning. And we are on that, yes.
‘He has the fire. He has the fire. I don’t want to dim this down. He should play with this kind of fire. That’s his strength.
‘But the fire comes also with some attributes that can intimidate you, maybe even as a teammate. You see sometimes the explosion towards referees and the anger in his game, so if he can channel this in the right way and we can help him in this, then for sure he has the something that we need and he has a certain edge that is hard to find.
‘He’s a nice kid and very open, very intelligent. I struggle to see that [England would be better off without him]. I struggle to see that.
‘I think it has to be the other way around. How we can have the best version of him… but I see that it can create mixed emotions.
‘I see this with my parents, with my mum, that she sometimes cannot see the nice and well-educated and well-behaved guy that I see and the smile.
‘If he smiles, he wins everyone [over]. But sometimes you see the rage, you see the hunger, and the rage and the fire and it comes out in a way that can be a bit repulsive. For example, for my mother, when she sits in front of the TV. I see that.
‘But in general, we are very happy to have him. He’s a special boy.’
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