England manager Thomas Tuchel has revealed he has held talks with Marcus Rashford and team-mate Phil Foden after criticising their performances against Albania. Despite a 2-0 victory at Wembley, the pair, who were deployed out wide, failed to make an impact on the game, prompting Tuchel to call for more from them.
The German tactician celebrated a successful start to his tenure with the national team, marked by a debut goal from young talent Myles Lewis-Skelly and Harry Kane's impressive 70th international goal.
However, the spotlight was also on loanee Aston Villa forward Rashford and Manchester City's ace Foden, as Tuchel acknowledged he had higher expectations for their contributions.
"We hope for more impact in these positions," Tuchel remarked post-match. "More dribbling and more aggressive runs towards the box.
"In general that was missing. The chances come from the little runs behind the line. They were not as decisive as they can be."
Tuchel has since made it clear that he's addressed both players regarding their efforts but emphasized his satisfaction with their work rate, particularly off the ball.
He is now keen to see them take on opponents more directly. Ahead of Monday's clash with Latvia, Tuchel said: "I've spoken to both of them in front of the group. They know I appreciate the effort, especially off the ball.
"We can see in the numbers how much effort they put into defending high and into the counter-press, also in their sprinting numbers.
"Marcus had a lot of runs when we had the ball where we did not see him, where we did not use him. He was maybe unlucky with the timing.
"Phil is maybe not finding the momentum that he can have. Both of them are very positive and have every right to be positive, they know exactly what we want from them.
"Ideally we will bring them into more 1v1 situations and they have to have the confidence to take the 1v1s. Phil needs more close connections to a no 10 than we could provide in this match."
Roy Keane was particularly critical of Foden after Friday's outing, claiming that he risked being axed by Tuchel if he didn't improve.
He told ITV: "Listen, Foden won't have that problem coming up about where he will be playing because he won't be playing [at all].
"I think he might be lacking in confidence. He's definitely off it. Usually when he cuts inside he'll pick a pass out or get a shot away.
"He did none of that tonight, and every time he got the ball, I'm looking at him thinking, 'I don't expect anything from Foden at the moment'. Wherever he's playing you've got to affect the game in different ways and he didn't do that tonight."
This article was first published on Mirror Sport