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It seems Thomas Tuchel has a fair bit of making up to do after his costly decisions in England’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina (yes, I’m mentioning it, sorry).
An email from James in Bangkok reflects what some supporters are clearly feeling regarding the manager:
Anyone else feeling like we’ve seen through Tuchel already? Seems a bit embarrassing that he’s still there, naming squads, trying to battle our ‘loser’ DNA. When we already know, that when it really comes down to it, he’s a bottle job.
It’s a salient point, James. Tuchel definitely needs to prove England can cut the mustard against better teams, rather than shrink into their shells like they did in Atlanta in July.
A few outlets are reporting that Alex Scott is set to be named in the England squad. The Bournemouth midfielder has started the season impressively, after being linked with Chelsea and others in the summer, and registered a Player of the Match performance in the Cherries’ win over Real Sociedad in the Europa League last night.
The 23-year-old is uncapped at senior international level, though has represented England Under-21s on 11 occasions. Born in Guernsey, he came through the ranks at Bristol City after moving from the Channel Island.
How on earth, with all due respect, are Hull City fourth in the Premier League?
WhoScored’s Harry Paterson has attempted to explain the Tigers’ rapid start, which is confounding most onlookers.
It’s been a harrowing start to the season for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos.
Manchester United’s women are bottom of the WSL after two games, Michael Carrick is already under pressure after an unconvincing early spell in the Premier League was compounded by a League Cup defeat to Brighton in midweek, while Sir Jim’s other football projects, Nice and Lausanne, are both also rock bottom of their respective leagues in France and Switzerland.
“Built for more,” is a slogan Ineos have used in the past. The aforementioned teams sure need a bit more than they’ve produced so far this season.
Tom Garry
Manchester United women’s head coach, Eva Olid, says her side’s difficult start will help them become stronger and that she is undeterred by criticism of their opening two defeats.
The former Hearts manager, who arrived at United in August, endured a 5-0 loss against Chelsea last Sunday after beginning with a 2-1 defeat at London City Lionesses.
“The beginning, how you start, doesn’t define you [for] the rest of the season,” Olid said before Saturday’s tough-looking trip to face Arsenal.
“Two or three matches don’t define you, how you are or how you are going to be as a team. There have been transition changes but we know where we go, the direction and we know how we are doing will give us the success in the long term.
“All the teams, through the season, have a difficult moment. Our difficult moment is the start. But we are learning as a team to grow because the difficult moments make you grow. And once we are past this difficult moment and start our momentum, we will be so much better than without the difficult moment.”
Some match reports from last night’s action, as Crystal Palace and Bournemouth enjoyed themselves in the Europa League; the same cannot be said for Celtic. Meanwhile, Manchester City’s youngsters had a fun evening out in the Carabao Cup against Norwich.
The England squad should be announced at 10am (BST), with Tuchel chatting to the media at 11am. The expectation is that Chelsea’s Cole Palmer will be named in that squad, having of course missed out on the World Cup.
It will be interesting to see who else comes in from the cold, and who doesn’t make the cut. Alex Scott and Morgan Gibbs-White are two names in contention.
Preamble
Happy Friday to you all and welcome along to another live news blog, which today will take in the naming of the first post-World Cup England squad by Thomas Tuchel. The Three Lions are preparing for a bumper international break, which includes Uefa Nations League games against Spain, Czech Republic (twice) and Croatia. Just nobody mention the Argentina semi-final, OK?
That also means this is the last set of Premier League fixtures for a whole three weeks – 10 October is when it all resumes again – with plenty of teams hoping to head into the extended break on a high note. Brentford v Chelsea kicks off the action tonight, with plenty of eye-catching games including Tottenham v Aston Villa, Bournemouth v Liverpool and Fulham v Manchester United and a full complement of fixtures in the EFL and around Europe, of course. We’ll bring you the latest team news ahead of those games, with a number of managers holding their pre-match press conferences.
Stick with us throughout the day, and feel free to drop us an email with your Friday thoughts. Grab a coffee and enjoy.
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