Thomas Tuchel heaped praise on Bukayo Saka and welcomed the healthy level of ‘competition’ between England’s wealth of attacking talent following the side’s 3-0 win over Wales.
England raced out of the blocks and took the lead after only three minutes at Wembley as Morgan Rogers fired past Karl Darlow with a composed first-time finish.
Ollie Watkins doubled England’s advantage just seven minutes later, before Saka took centre stage with an unstoppable curling strike into the top corner to put the hosts out of sight in the friendly.
While Saka has been managing a niggling groin problem in recent weeks, there was no indication of any discomfort in the forward’s lively performance – his first appearance for his country since a 3-1 defeat to Senegal back in June.
Saka had to sit out England’s 5-0 thrashing Serbia last time out and Noni Madueke stepped up impressively in his absence, scoring his first international goal in the one-sided World Cup qualifier.
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But Madueke was struck down with an injury of his own last month, which meant he could not be considered for selection to face either Wales or Latvia.
The winger – who swapped Chelsea for bitter rivals Arsenal in the summer – is not expected to return until mid-November at the earliest.
On Saka and Madueke giving him a selection ‘problem’ ahead of the World Cup, Tuchel replied: ‘Good. That’s what we want.
‘Noni is unfortunately injured. Noni was excellent in the last camp, he was electric.
‘He then continued to play for his club while Bukayo was out for Arsenal in the same manner.
‘We were very, very sad that he’s now injured, but Saka stepped up. He had to step up also.’
According to Tuchel, Saka’s eye-catching display proved the forward is edging closer to full fitness and steadily ‘regaining his rhythm and stamina’ again.
‘It was like his first camp where he comes without injury and it’s necessary, like I said, the competition is on,’ Tuchel added.
‘Bukayo had a good performance like everyone else and showed what he’s capable of.
‘I still feel there is a step to go for Bukayo to regain his rhythm, naturally after one or two injuries now, to regain his rhythm and his stamina.
‘Then, he is a very important player for us and he will fight for his place because that’s what he does.
‘He’s played for many, many years for Arsenal at the highest level and this is what we demand of him for England. He’s ready to go and that’s what he showed today.’
Tuchel was critical of the ‘silent’ Wembley crowd in his post-match interview with ITV Sport, calling on England fans to give his players more ‘energy’ in future matches.
After doubling down on his comments in his press conference, the German applauded Craig Bellamy’s Wales for providing his England side with ‘very complicated’ challenge.
‘I heard the support from the Welsh fans but it had no affect on us,’ he continued.
‘We played with a lot of effort, we played very smart and we only had one-and-a-half days to prepare for a very complicated opponent.
‘They are very well drilled, very well coached, even in the deep build-up, so we still wanted to play with high pressing, we wanted to have a lot of ball wins and we had it.
‘Full credit to the team because they’ve bought into the ideas over the last one-and-a-half days and to the changes we had to make because until now, we only played against deep blocks so this was the first time that we were pressed high.
‘Our deep build-up was good, our middle block was good, our defending, our high pressing was excellent in the first half and it takes a lot of effort to shut Wales down like this.’
Tuchel went on: ‘We saw what they did against Canada, we saw what they did in Belgium and they were just excellent and they had much more ball possession than the opponent.
‘It takes a lot of selfless work, a lot of teamwork and we did it again. We were very quickly 3-0 up and we could’ve scored more in the first half.’
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