Next England Manager - Thomas Tuchel

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

I get that it's a meaningless game and he's trying new things, but i honestly don't get why Tuchel is playing Quansah (who plays CB for his club) at right back, when he has Djed Spence on the bench.

It's the modern thing for teams who expect to have a great deal of the ball to play a centre back at full back. The team narrows to a 3 at the back in possession as O'Reilly pushes high and you don't get that same level of solidity having Spence being part of the 3. Guardiola and Arteta do it very regularly. Arguably he could have put Reece James there instead as he's capable enough defensively but the role is more about being a centre back than a right back in games like this. Albania are so poor Quansah has ended up playing quite wide and high today though so I'm not sure how much he'll learn about his ability to offer solidity

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Garrymanilow said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

I get that it's a meaningless game and he's trying new things, but i honestly don't get why Tuchel is playing Quansah (who plays CB for his club) at right back, when he has Djed Spence on the bench.

It's the modern thing for teams who expect to have a great deal of the ball to play a centre back at full back. The team narrows to a 3 at the back in possession as O'Reilly pushes high and you don't get that same level of solidity having Spence being part of the 3. Arguably he could have put Reece James there instead as he's capable enough defensively but the role is more about being a centre back than a right back in games like this

I get what you're saying but not sure i agree it's the best thing for us to be doing. The two countries (Spain/France) i'd class as our main European rivals don't play a centre back at full back, neither do Portugal. I see it more as Tuchel just not trusting the full backs at his disposal (James excluded because there's probably an agreement with Chelsea not to risk him playing twice in 4 days)

Not to mention that Quansah is pretty average anyway.

I don't disagree, I don't rate Quansah at all. Having said that, I don't rate Djed Spence either, I think he's a very average player. I'm not really bothered about what Spain and France do but we traditionally struggle with breaking down these very poor teams that sit deep. Adding an extra midfielder in who can also cover left back out of possession is something that I can understand Tuchel trying, though it's ended up with us having O'Reilly coming inside and Quansah staying wide and playing as a standard full back which isn't much use. I think you're probably right that Tuchel doesn't love his right back options; who would? If James and Livramento were fit enough to be relied on I think things would be very different