Thomas Tuchel hailed the impact and attitude of his substitutes as Eberechi Eze came off the bench to seal England’s 2-0 victory over Serbia.
A first-half volley from Bukayo Saka sent Tuchel’s side on their way after debutant Nico O’Reilly’s shot deflected to the Arsenal forward. Eze rounded off a brilliant move involving fellow substitutes Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham in the 90th minute to confirm the victory, which was England’s seventh in succession without conceding in qualification.
Tuchel was delighted with his side’s professionalism given that they had already made certain of their place at the World Cup last month and stressed the importance of having a strong bench going into next year’s tournament.
“This is not about building a starting XI, it’s about building a team,” he said. “And that means that sometimes, they’re all big players in their club, they’re all used to play, they’re all disappointed. This is normal, but they buy into this idea of building a team and this is what we want, this is what we need, there is no other way around it.
“Only if we’re a strong group who can put the ego behind, who can put the disappointment behind and then contribute and give the coach a headache [about] what to do in the next match, that’s the only way. And I like it because it’s natural for this team.”
Tuchel added: “The atmosphere after the matches, during the matches is the right energy and I think everyone is treating everyone with respect. The ones on the pitch know that they can rely on everyone who comes from the bench to finish the game. You could see the impact today and it has to stay like this.”
Foden was outstanding in a false 9 role after replacing captain Harry Kane in a quadruple substitution after 65 minutes and Tuchel says he is excited to work more with the Manchester City forward.
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“You just see he’s full of confidence,” he said. “You see it basically pretty much in the first minutes when you meet him in camp, you just feel confidence. I think in matches where we need to unlock a deep opponent, he can always be a choice.”
