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Thomas Tuchel praised “teamwork in its purest form” after England kickstarted the head coach’s reign by taking control of their World Cup qualifying group with a dominant 5-0 thrashing of Serbia.
Goals from Harry Kane, Noni Madueke, Ezri Konsa, Marc Guéhi and Marcus Rashford stunned the crowd at the Rajko Mitic Stadium and lifted England seven points clear at the top of Group K. Tuchel, whose side have won their first five qualifiers, was delighted with the best performance of his tenure and hailed his players for how they combined to humiliate the hosts in Belgrade.
“I think it was teamwork in its purest form,” the German said. “We helped each other out, we had the right intensity in the right moments. We put the work in to not allow one shot on target for a strong home team. If you want to do this you need to support each other, you need to play disciplined and keep the intensity up. This is what we did and the players did excellent, so full credit to the team.
“There’s never a perfect performance, but it was a very, very good performance,” Tuchel added. “I’m just glad for the players that they could show to the fans and to you guys what they’re capable of.”
Tuchel faced criticism after Saturday’s frustrating 2-0 win over Andorra but he sensed that this game would lift England’s level. “ I love what I see and I feel what I feel during camp on a daily basis,” he said. “We had a bit of a stop-start game against Andorra and the result was maybe not the result that everyone expected. I kept them in the belief but at some point you need to prove as a player that it’s not just words from your coach.
“I said we put all the effort in against Andorra but you don’t get the praise for it, so today I’m happy that the players get the reward and that they have this outstanding result in a very difficult environment. Of course it’s a perfect result and it’s a perfect moment for having five different goalscorers.”
Guéhi, Madueke and Konsa were proud of their first international goals. “Over the moon,” Guéhi, the Crystal Palace captain, said. “You work really hard growing up so scoring a goal for your country is a great feeling.”
