England in meltdown after historic defeat against Senegal: ‘Tuchel out’

As the Socceroos were celebrating World Cup qualification, England was counting the cost of a fresh humiliation.

England slumped to a 3-1 home friendly defeat by Senegal on Tuesday to ramp up the scrutiny on boss Thomas Tuchel one year out from the World Cup.

Goals from Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra and Cheikh Sabaly inflicted England’s first ever defeat against African opposition at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground after Harry Kane had given the hosts an early lead.

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The BBC reported English fans were heard shouting “Tuchel out” and “disgraceful” at the end of the game.

Former England midfielder Leon Osman was also scathing in his assessment of the manager.

“We got to the finals of major competitions under Gareth Southgate. Yes, you want to tweak things but you can’t step too far away from what had been working for them,” Osman told BBC radio.

“You just want to tweak and perfect things. Thomas Tuchel is changing the whole system and changing what these players have been used to.

“If you are a top manager and going into a club, for instance Arne Slot at Liverpool, how much did he change from Jurgen Klopp? He just made little changes and didn’t change the whole system.”

Thomas Tuchel suddenly finds himself in the gun. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Tuchel had been scathing in his criticism of his side’s dreary display in beating minnows Andorra just 1-0 in World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

But it didn’t spark the response he was looking for as the German, who was appointed with the task of ending England’s wait since 1966 for a major tournament win, suffered his first defeat in four games in charge.

“We need to see the players under these kinds of conditions against one of the top 20 teams in the world to be smarter,” said Tuchel.

“We don’t go next week to the World Cup. We go in one year.”

Tuchel responded by making 10 changes, with Kane the only player to retain his place.

Kyle Walker was partly responsible for the Senegal equaliser. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

It took just seven minutes for the Bayern Munich striker to maintain his record of scoring in every game since Tuchel took charge.

Former Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy should have done better when he could only parry Anthony Gordon’s shot into the path of Kane, who tapped in his 73rd international goal.

Dean Henderson was given a rare chance to impress in the England goal as Jordan Pickford was relegated to the bench.

The Crystal Palace stopper made impressive saves from his club teammate Sarr and Idrissa Gana Gueye.

But he was helpless when Sarr made the most of a lack of concentration from Kyle Walker to meet Nicolas Jackson’s cross and fire into the bottom corner.

Cheikh Sabaly (up) celebrates after scoring his team third goal. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

England had never lost to African opposition in 21 previous matches but Senegal had been beaten just once from open play since losing to the Three Lions at the 2022 World Cup.

“Not good enough. We had moments, but with and without the ball things aren’t clicking, we’re not finding the right tempo,” said Kane. “We’ve lost that aggressive nature that we had.”

Diarra was afforded acres of room to run in behind the England defence and slot between the legs of Henderson to put the visitors in front just after the hour mark.

Mendy made amends for his role in the opening goal with fine saves to deny Bukayo Saka and Morgan Gibbs-White a swift equaliser.

England thought they had levelled late on when Jude Bellingham smashed home from a corner.

But the goal was ruled out for a handball by Levi Colwill before the ball broke to the Real Madrid midfielder.

Senegal made the most of that reprieve to seal a famous win in stoppage time when Sabaly rounded off a slick counter-attack.

Boos rained down from the disgruntled home support to leave Tuchel with plenty to ponder before England are next in action in September.

“Of course, it’s a disappointing result,” he told ITV. “Not sure if we did not deserve a little bit more result-wise. Felt a bit frozen, not active enough for a long time over the match.

“We defended quite well for long periods in the first half and then our best period came when we were 2-1 down. We conceded the first two goals - very easy goals, we need to defend better.

“The reaction was good after we were down. We suddenly were more active, more free, more fluent, more aggressive. We had big chances to equalise.”

- with AFP

Originally published as England in meltdown after historic defeat against Senegal: ‘Tuchel out’