Thomas, do something! This time, the England manager did.It was at Euro 2024 when, in frustration, we scratched the words: ‘Gareth, do something!’, and Southgate did not. At least not soon enough or with as much conviction as Thomas Tuchel showed in Dallas this week.Southgate was a fine England boss and deserves huge respect, but in his final tournament he was struck by managerial paralysis.In the final against Spain, Jude Bellingham looked to the touchline and demanded change. Southgate substituted Harry Kane moments later.There will be no such challenge to Tuchel’s authority. Not least because he sees the need for intervention long before his players.When word of his assistant Anthony Barry’s forthright half-time interview reached the press box at the Dallas Stadium, there was a feeling among some that Tuchel may not be comfortable with the coaching staff’s irritation being aired in public. Thomas Tuchel acted quickly to help England secure an opening World Cup win against Croatia It was a contrast to Gareth Southgate’s inaction in the Euro 2024 final when Jude Bellingham demanded change There is no questioning Tuchel’s authority with the England boss seeing the need for intervention long before his players
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‘It was a complicated and confusing first half from us,’ Barry had said. ‘We made some decisions where the energy was not free in our mind. We played long when we should play short and played short when we should play long. (After going 2-1 up) we fell back into some fearful patterns.’Did Tuchel care? Not one bit. Not when he was about to deliver the same stinging appraisal to his players. But this was not the riot act, not simply a dressing-room dressing-down. There was a solution. There was support. It was, say the players, liberating. Finally, somewhat ironically in the form of a German, England had Winston Churchill.It was Southgate himself who said, following England’s defeat by Brazil at the 2002 World Cup, that the team needed Churchill but in Sven Goran-Eriksson they got Iain Duncan-Smith. We will never accuse Tuchel of lacking charisma or emotion.But behind the fire is a cool, analytical mind. He sees problems in real-time and solves them at half-time, as he did against Croatia. He did not sugar-coat his thoughts, either. Not when what he had seen in the opening 45 minutes had left such a sour taste. He told his players they were too passive, too soft and too deep. Where was the bravery? If they were going down, at least do so throwing some punches. It was a speech of empowerment.But rallying cries can feel like a distant echo if not supported by actions, and Tuchel made the right changes at the right time, without the need for a reminder from Bellingham. Here was a manager who managed. In a tournament of small margins, he could yet be the 12th man in search of a second star.England were 3-2 up as the clock ticked past the 70th minute, but Croatia were starting to ask questions of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. It was Tuchel who had the answers. There was a triple change and not long after he replaced Bellingham. The sight of his four substitutes combining for England’s fourth goal in the 86th minute felt as much like an assist for the head coach.That goal came with Bellingham – England’s best player in the second half – off the pitch. Tuchel’s management of the Real Madrid star extends over 15 months, not just 15 minutes in a locker room in Texas. Because for all of his football nous, it is Tuchel’s emotional acumen that strikes you more. He has coaxed Bellingham to a place where his ego exists as part of the collective, not beyond it.A lot of managers act like they are the smartest man in the room – and some of them are stupid enough to believe it – but Tuchel exudes his smarts through wisdom and wit. His players are taken by his good humour. He is a foreign coach, but laughter is universal. During what could be seven weeks in the Big Brother house out here, it helps if Big Daddy makes the camp-mates smile. Tuchel made a triple change and later replaced Bellingham, with the England boss then seeing his substitutes combine to score England’s fourth goal to wrap up the victory Tuchel was frustrated that photographers blocked his view of his team singing the national anthem The England boss showed anger and has succeeded in his demand for FIFA to change the protocolNot that anyone was goofing around in Dallas – and when Tuchel showed his teeth it was in anger. It was not only his players who felt that, just ask the photographers in front of the dugout who blocked his view of his team singing the national anthem.‘F****** joke!’ he said to them, before later demanding FIFA changed the protocol. FIFA listened. Because of Tuchel’s snap, the snappers will be moved. A 4-2 opening-game victory, then, was not his only win.That is the influence England’s manager has and it is why a leader of equal courage and calculation can provide the X-factor, in a way the likes of Southgate and Eriksson and countless others could not.As one of his school friends told me in his hometown of Krumbach last month: ‘With Thomas, there was no left or right, only his way, straight ahead!’Tuchel has England on the right road, and it is up to his players to go with him. Do something? Thomas is a manager who most certainly does.Have you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE