Thomas Tuchel will not go out of his way to do favours to clubs when it comes to selecting his England team.
The new England head coach will take his second England game on Monday night, but said on Sunday that while he will always take care of the players, he will not necessarily rest them simply for the clubs’ convenience.
Tuchel made specific reference to the fact that Declan Rice played in the second leg of Arsenal’s Champions League last 16 tie against PSV Eindhoven on 12 March, even though Arsenal won the first leg 7-1 away from home on 4 March. Rice has started 36 games for Arsenal this season already, including 13 of the last 14. Only David Raya, Gabriel and William Saliba have started more.
“Given the fact Declan Rice played after a 7-1 first leg, he played the next match with Arsenal,” Tuchel said on Sunday, “I didn’t have the feeling that they think so much about us. So I don’t think we have to break our heads about this.”
Tuchel insisted that he does “take care” of his players but said he would not spare from international duty just for the sake of the clubs. The players will return to their clubs next week before the busy final phase of the season, with nine Premier League games left to play as well as the conclusions of the European competitions and the FA Cup.
“I take care about the players,” he said. “We take care about the schedule. But it would be the wrong signal to tell players now ‘hey you have tough (club) matches coming up so I rest you now.’”
England have their second World Cup qualifier against Latvia at Wembley on Monday night, and Tuchel said that looking after the players must go alongside looking out for the national team.
“We have a qualifier to play, we do what’s good for us,” he said. “We are in contact with the clubs. We are in high-level monitoring where the statuses are known, and we won’t take any unprofessional risks.”
“Because first of all I feel responsible for the players. I don’t want the player to be injured. I want the players to play the quarter-finals of the Champions League – all of them – because I want to watch it. In the end we take care about [ourselves] and the clubs take care about themselves. And the main focus is taking care of the players.”
(Julian Finney/Getty Images)
