England must shed fear of losing, says Tuchel, as next chapter begins

LONDON : For the fans who grimaced their way through England's run to the Euro 2024 final, new head coach Thomas Tuchel's pledge on Thursday that his team will focus on the joy of winning and not the fear of losing will be music to their ears.

German Tuchel takes charge of his first game on Friday as England host Albania at Wembley in their opening World Cup qualifier - the first step in a journey the Football Association hope will lead to glory in the United States.

England reached their second successive European Championship final last year in Germany but it was anything but a barnstorming run with timid displays against the likes of Denmark, Slovenia and Slovakia.

Tuchel was reminded about comments he made while working as a pundit at Euro 2024 in which he said Gareth Southgate's England were shackled by pressure.

"It was my feeling, was my feedback in front of TV long before I thought I would be in charge," the former Chelsea manager told reporters before taking the final training session at Tottenham Hotspur's training ground.

"I think it has to be the other way around. I want us to play with excitement and hunger and the desire to win and the joy to win and the acceptance of failure is part of it.

"I want players to feel safe to express themselves and play with joy to win, not the fear to lose."

Asked if the England shirt weighed heavily on a squad full of regular trophy winners, a relaxed Tuchel injected humour, displaying his linguistic expertise.

"I heard that's it's a heavy shirt, but it's in fact not, it's a high quality shirt that will weight less when we come to America that adapts to the climate there," he said.

"So it's not heavy in reality, but of course I know what the players mean. But watching the Euros, yeah