Thomas Tuchel insists that Jack Grealish is still a lot of his plans in England, but he has warned him how his behavior can be perceived outside the field, and says he has a responsibility to look more “calm”.
Manchester City’s husband was left out of Tuchel’s first team with 26 men, having made only three replacement appearances this calendar year in Premier League.
However, Tuchel revealed that the two have had fair discussions about his current weak form, and the New England boss is shining in his admiration for the arm.
“I love Jack,” Tuchel said.
“I love everything for him – his personality. I love his quality. The boy has courage. He can get the heat, he is not touched if the Bernabeu whistles him.
“So is he a player who can be available and have an impact on our team? Yes – 100 percent. But lately he just has no pace, and he knows that Jack becomes better and better as he plays.
England’s manager was directly asked about newspapers reports that showed upset escort to a pub in the birth of Manchester a week ago. Pep Guardiola said he was quiet for the images, and only judges his players how they perform in training and on the field. Tuchel mainly agrees.
“Of course, it’s not ideal if he is in the newspapers and there in public, but maybe it’s not just his fault,” Tuchel said.
“Everyone there has a phone phone in their pocket, these people are famous, it can happen. It’s not ideal, we want to have it calmer, but that’s not the reason for not choosing it.”
Tuchel also revealed that he plans to travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks to meet Ivan Toney and watch him play in the flesh, and that the attacker is still much in his thoughts on the future teams of England.
It was also confirmed that Ollie Watkins has been removed only from Tuchel’s first team because he has an annoying knee injury. But the manager says there is real competition for the countries for the role of Harry Kane’s wonderful implication, and Watkins, Toney and Dominic Solanke are all in the frame.
“I think it will be important to go to see Ivan in the coming weeks, watch a live game, maybe watching live training, get a better feeling for it. He’s on the list.”
Tuchel says that in the absence of Watkins she went down to a direct choice between Solanke and Toney for the future qualifications of the World Cup against Albania and Latvia.
“It was a purely sporting decision for Dominic at the end. It was not about Saudi Arabia, or if we don’t trust the League there. I had only much more evidence and live observation of matches by Dominic, so immediately, I made that choice.
“With watkins we had a decision to make because of inflammation in the patella tendon that simply worries him a lot, so it makes no sense to call it.”