Thomas Tuchel says he will sing the national anthem as England manager — but only after earning the right to do so by winning matches.
The German announced the first squad of his tenure on Friday, with a shock recall for Jordan Henderson and another for Marcus Rashford ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia.
The former Chelsea boss appeared mindful of the furore over the national anthem that threatened to overshadow Lee Carsley’s temporary spell in charge.
‘You have a very powerful, emotional and meaningful national anthem,’ Tuchel said. ‘And I could not be more proud to be on the sideline and be in charge of the English national team.
‘It means everything. It means a lot to me, I can assure you. But I feel because it is that meaningful and it is that emotional and it is so powerful I have to earn my right to sing it. I feel that it is not just a given. You cannot just sing it. That’s why I decided that I will not sing it in my first matches.’
Tuchel suggested that belting out God Save The King during his 18-month reign was contingent on him immersing himself fully into the English game.
Thomas Tuchel has said he will sing the national anthem when England start winning matches
Lee Carsley refused to sing God Save The King during his interim reign, but Tuchel has suggested he will sing it when he feels it is the right time
Tuchel named Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford in his first England squad on Friday
The 51-year-old added: ‘I will earn it with results, with building a group, with doing my job properly and by creating a feeling where maybe even you guys say at some point, “Now it’s time that you sing it, it feels like you’ve properly earned it and you’re a proper English guy now”.
‘Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like, “He should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it”.’
Tuchel says he is running a 60-day ‘crash course’ over six camps to turn England from the nearly men of major tournaments to world champions. And he defended his record of not attending Premier League matches on every weekend since he officially started work in January, insisting no other international coach is seeing more live games than him.
The FA’s bespoke wide-angle tactical software, Helix, is available to all coaches and Tuchel has made full use of it at home in London and on trips back to Germany.
‘I was at 25 matches in the last nine weeks,’ he said. ‘On the Premier League weekends when I don’t go, I watch a minimum of five matches live on a wide-angle screen.
‘I watch more if you don’t see me than if you see me in the stadium, because if I go to the stadium on a Saturday, I don’t see the match before and I don’t see the match after.
‘I think I did more live matches than anyone else. Everyone tells me it’s easier to not watch it live in the stadium. It gives you the chance to watch tactically, to watch three matches a day.
‘Our style needs to reflect the Premier League, it’s a very physical and direct league. We should be brave enough to play like an England squad, not copy other nations. It should reflect the values of the country and the strongest league in the world. We will try to implement a direct, attacking style, to increase our rhythm and intensity in our game and do it from a crash course from Monday.’
Tuchel has, in part, called up Henderson for his leadership qualities as he rows back on the changes made by Carsley.
Tuchel defended making trips back to Germany rather than attending Premier League games
He also explained why Jack Grealish was omitted from his first Three Lions squad
Rashford is in the squad as reward for improving off the ball at Aston Villa, and Tuchel admitted he ‘wanted him close’ so he did not ‘fall back into old routines’ — something he insisted was performance-related rather than anything off the field.
Jack Grealish was not picked after playing just 34 minutes of league football since Christmas. ‘I love Jack,’ Tuchel said. ‘Is he a player who can have an impact in our squad? Yes, 100 per cent. But lately, he has no rhythm. He said to me, “I’m not a start-stop player. It is so hard for me to influence a match from the bench and then be on the bench again”.
‘Of course, it’s not ideal that he’s in the newspapers and out there in public. But it’s maybe also not only his fault.
‘This can happen. It’s not ideal, we want to have him calmer. But this was not the reason for not picking him.’