Lee Carsley hands Thomas Tuchel final piece of England advice – watch out for service stations and WEST HAM fans
LEE CARSLEY told Thomas Tuchel to watch out for coffee-shop bores and West Ham fans talking up Jarrod Bowen.
New England boss Tuchel is unlikely to spend as much time in motorway services as down-to-earth Carsley has during his reign as head coach.
But the German will not be able to escape entirely from 50 million wannabe England managers who all think they could do a better job.
Carsley said: “It makes me laugh that everyone’s got an opinion on the team.
“I’m on the road a lot, so service stations is where I seem to get the most advice.
“Some of it is good, some of it is not so good. I seem to meet a lot of West Ham fans, very Jarrod-heavy.
“It’s mainly team selection . . . I was in a queue in a Starbucks and a fella was talking about the false nine and the tactics, after the Greece game. I just wanted a soy latte!”
Carsley will finally sit down with Tuchel, who starts work in January, after he completes his six-game Nations League assignment on Sunday against the Republic of Ireland.
He said: “I am not sure I will give Thomas a lot of advice.
“He is in a better position than I am in terms of the experience he has had and the staff he has.
“It will probably be more about the players, the personalities and the stuff you won’t see on the TV.
“I’m putting together a lot of thoughts, as are the rest of the staff.
“I fully expect to catch up with him after the camp, and hopefully we can hand the team over in a good position.”
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Carsley is not one to blow his own trumpet. But he clearly feels that if England win today, he will have fulfilled a brief that went beyond just winning promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League.
Carsley, who has given debuts to six youngsters, said: “What we have tried to do is increase the amount of players available to Thomas.
“It feels like the fans are really connected with the team. They like the fact that it looks younger, it looks energetic, it looks fresh.”
And despite England reaching two Euros finals and a World Cup semi-final under Gareth Southgate, something fresh was needed.
Carsley accepts his ideas did not work in the 2-1 home defeat to Greece.
But he said: “It would have been quite easy to pick the squad that was at the Euros and go with the same players. But as close as we got, we still haven’t won yet.
“To keep repeating the same thing and then expect something different, I think we would have missed a trick.”