LONDON
\nEngland manager Thomas Tuchel said his own mother finds some of Jude Bellingham\u2019s antics \u201crepulsive\u201d but he does not want to dim the Real Madrid star\u2019s fire. Tuchel suffered his first defeat in four games as England boss on Tuesday when Senegal became the first African side to ever beat the Three Lions in a 3-1 friendly win.
\nBellingham thought he had made it 2-2 late on at Nottingham Forest\u2019s City Ground only for the goal to be controversially disallowed before Senegal broke away for a third in stoppage time. Tuchel had to restrain Bellingham\u2019s protests at the decision at full-time and said it is a balancing act to retain the 21-year-old\u2019s fight without it bubbling over.
\n\u201cSometimes you see the rage, the hunger and the fire and it comes out in a way that can be a bit repulsive, for example, for my mother when she sits in front of the TV,\u201d said Tuchel in a wide-ranging interview with radio station talkSPORT on Wednesday. \u201cI see that but, in general, we are very happy to have him. He\u2019s a special boy.\u201d Tuchel dismissed suggestions England could be better off without Bellingham, who starred in the Three Lions\u2019 run to the Euro 2024 final.
\nBut he called on the Bellingham to inspire rather than intimidate his team-mates. \u201cHe has a certain something and brings an edge. It\u2019s needed if we want to achieve big things,\u201d added Tuchel.\u201dIt needs to be channelled towards the opponent and towards our goal, and not to intimidate team-mates or be aggressive towards team-mates or referees but always on winning.
\n\u201cHe has the fire — I don\u2019t want to dim that, he should play with that as that\u2019s his strength. \u201cBut the fire comes also with some attribute that can intimidate team-mates.
\nSometimes you see the explosion towards referees and the anger in his game. \u201cIf he can channel this in the right way he has something that we need and that edge is hard to find.\u201d
\nTuchel, who won the Champions League at Chelsea and league titles with Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, was hired with the task of ending England\u2019s wait for a major tournament victory since 1966. Under Gareth Southgate they reached the final of each of the last two Euros, plus a quarter-final and semi-final of the past two World Cups.
\nTuchel has a richly-talented squad to choose from but has so far failed to find the right blend in three underwhelming World Cup qualifying wins over Albania, Latvia and Andorra before the Senegal defeat.\u201dI already have an idea of what to do,\u201d he added with one year to go to the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON England manager Thomas Tuchel said his own mother finds some of Jude Bellingham\u2019s antics \u201crepulsive\u201d but he does not want to dim the Real Madrid star\u2019s fire. Tuchel suffered his first defeat in four games as England boss on Tuesday when Senegal became the first African side to ever beat the Three Lions in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-483947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n