England manager Thomas Tuchel says that while some fans – including the German’s mother – may view some of Jude Bellingham’s on-field behaviour as “repulsive”, any critics of the Real Madrid midfielder do not know the “special boy” he does.
Bellingham, 21, was angered by a VAR decision to rule out his second-half goal in Tuesday’s friendly against Senegal, when England were 2-1 down.
England eventually lost 3-1 at the City Ground, which was Tuchel’s first defeat in charge of the national team.
In an interview with Talksport, Tuchel said Bellingham’s “fire” is something he does not want to “dim down” but does need to be “channelled” in the right direction.
“It needs to be channelled towards the opponent and towards our goal, not to intimidate team-mates or be over-aggressive towards team-mates and officials, but always towards the solution, towards winning.
“He has the fire and I don’t want to dim this down. He should play with this kind of fire, but the fire comes with some attributes that can intimidate you, maybe even as a team-mate.
“You sometimes see the explosion towards referees and the anger in his game. If he can channel this in the right way, and we can help him with this, then for sure he has the something we need and a certain edge that is hard to find.
“He’s a nice kid, very open, very intelligent and he’s been very easy [to manage] so far.”
It was put to Tuchel that there may be some fans who feel England would be better without Bellingham in the team, to which he replied: “I struggle to see that and I think it has to be the other way around – how we can have the best version of him, that people understand what he brings to us and he’s bringing a certain edge.
“I see it can bring mixed emotions. I see this with my parents, with my mum, that she sometimes cannot see the nice, well-educated, well-behaved guy that I see.
Players ‘lacking enthusiasm and joy’
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Against Senegal, Tuchel made 10 changes to his starting line-up from Saturday’s World Cup qualifying victory against Andorra, with only captain Harry Kane keeping his place.
Asked about trying to get the best of the talent available to him and whether individual players may have to adapt for the betterment of the team, Tuchel said: “Gareth [Southgate] and Lee [Carsley] tried it, to bring as many of these highly talented players together.
“I am trying now at the moment and still we feel we are lacking the enthusiasm and the joy consistently on the international level.
“I can just underline that the individual has to take a step back for the greater good. It’s on us to find the right mixture, the right team, the right chemistry and the right connections in the team that they enjoy to play with each other. We haven’t done this yet.
“The first camp was a step in the right direction, the second camp was a bit of a mixture. We come to September, October and November, where by nature it gets more competitive and more straightforward in selection and the tone because we enter a World Cup year.”
England’s next two matches are in September, with World Cup qualifiers scheduled against Andorra and Serbia.
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