You can tell Thomas Tuchel is starting to feel comfortable in his new role because his getting confrontational. It is when he is at his best.
England's managers tend to have the opposite qualities of those which were seen to let down the last one, and Tuchel is following Mr... sorry, Sir Nice Guy after all.
You need to earn trust before you can start throwing comments like that about, and Tuchel must feel he has it not just on the pitch but in the stands now because the people he tried hardest to shake the complacency out of were actually the Wembley fans.Around halfway through his 18-month contract, he seems to have hit on a formula, as evidenced by the way the Three Lions followed up their 5-0 win over Serbia by mauling Wales at Wembley on Thursday night. Even managers in as much of a hurry as he is need time.
Despite what both camps said before and after the game, it was only a friendly, and it was only 3-0. It could have been more, not that it needed to be.
Rogers, Saka and Ollie Watkins all scored inside an first 20 minutes showcasing the intense, Premier League-style football Tuchel craves before the competitiveness was killed off by the usual friendly-game torrent of substitutions.
What do the trio have in common? All are fighting for their places at the moment, as most in the XI were. But it feels like a fair fight this time, not one under plenty of past managers where stellar reputations give the likes of Bellingham and Foden – whose absence has garnered more column inches, social media posts and airtime than the football ever could – a huge headstart.
The approach seems to be working just fine for them, and more importantly for a winning team who play a World Cup qualifier in Latvia on Tuesday.
It was a big night for Saka after a couple of good international breaks for his rival for a place with both Arsenal and England, Noni Madueke, who is now taken his turn to get injured.
"Bukatyo stepped up, he had to step up, it was his first camp with us without injury," stressed Tuchel. "I still think there is a step to go for Bukayo to regain his rhythm, naturally, and his stamina."
Informed that the 24-year-old had now scored more goals for England than any player in Arsenal's storied history, he was distinctly underwhelmed.
"Thirteen? One three?" he queried. "It has to be more. Sorry, he needs to keep on going, if it was 30 at least... then I would have (still) said it's not enough. I'm never satisfied.
"He is such a threat for Arsenal in the most difficult league in the world (the Premier League) so why would he not be at international level? We have the position for him, he has the attitude, the stamina, the talent, everything to be a top player at international level."
Jordan Pickford got a pat for breaking his own record (held jointly with Gordon Banks) by keeping eight consecutive clean sheets for England, but also a reminder that after 79 caps, including two in European Championship finals and one in a World Cup semi-final, he is not up to Tuchel’s standards yet.
"It's a great achievement to have eight clean sheets," he acknowledged, adding: "He is the goalkeeper, he doesn't do it alone, it's like always a team effort.
"He's a fantastic shot-stopper, there's no doubt about it. It was a challenge for him because they (Wales) press very high and we tried to escape the pressing with short passes. He did very well, he kept his composure, he kept calm, this is basically what we demand of him. He kept his focus.
"He's still developing, still adapting to what we want from him."
To everyone who played and everyone left at home he repeated the motto of this camp: "The competition (for places) is on and you can feel it."
There was a shake for the fans too, outsung by a large, often bucket-hatted, away contingent who just never shut up. Tuchel voiced his disappointment with the rest of the stadium on television, then doubled down on it with the written press, albeit slipping into a velvet glove.
"I am 100 per cent sure we will have fantastic support in the (World Cup) tournament, we will have top support in Latvia. We had excellent support in Serbia," he stressed.
"But today we were 3-0 up after 20 minutes, we had ball win after ball win after ball win and I thought, 'Why is the roof still on the stadium?
'"It's nothing big but it could have helped us in the second half in some moments to regain energy and rhythm but it was not like this today. No problem."
It was very difficult for Tuchel to get annoyed about much, but never under-estimate this perfectionist's ability to find a fault and if needs be, start an argument. It could be just what a group as talented as this needs to push them from nearly men to winners.