Tuchel Warns England Defense: 'We are the biggest danger to ourselves'

Thomas Tuchel has identified individual mistakes, particularly during build-up play, as the primary threat to England's defense, even as the team strives for its first clean sheet in seven games.

England has conceded 13 goals in their last six matches, including seven goals in their most recent outings against Spain and France. While Tuchel expressed confidence in the team's fundamental defensive capabilities, he emphasized the need for greater technical precision under pressure.

"We suffered from individual mistakes when we had the ball, especially in deep build-up," Tuchel stated ahead of Tuesday's Nations League tie against the Czech Republic in Prague. "It's something that we cannot repeat, especially not at this kind of level. To take care of this, we have to be technically absolutely clinical, under pressure. We need to improve these things. Strangely enough, when we had the ball, we were the biggest danger to ourselves around our box."

Despite the recent high number of goals conceded, Tuchel asserted that he is not yet concerned about broader defensive patterns. He noted that some key players who would help organize the defensive structure are currently unavailable.

"But purely defending, no concerns. I trust we can do it," Tuchel said. "Some players of course are not here, who would also help organising our defensive block, I don't have any reason to be concerned."

James Trafford is expected to start in goal against the Czech Republic, marking his fourth cap. Jordan Pickford is slated to return for subsequent matches against Croatia and a second fixture against the Czechs at Wembley.

Tuchel acknowledged the unusual nature of conceding seven goals in two matches against France and Spain but reiterated that he hasn't identified a consistent defensive flaw. He suggested that the team's structure when organized remained solid, and the defensive lapses were largely due to isolated errors.

"I didn't see a pattern. We defended very well in a block when we were organized, but we had just big individual mistakes," he explained. "But I could not see any defensive pattern that would concern me. I felt that we defended much more disciplined, cohesive and organised than in some matches in the World Cup. That was a step in the right direction. We constantly pushed out from our middle block, we tried to go into the opponent's half and pushed out of the deep block. We didn't suffer too for long periods of time in defending. We never lost our structure. So from all these things I'm not concerned. The result was heavily influenced by some individual mistakes that can happen, but the result was influenced but not the performance."