England manager Thomas Tuchel said striker Jude Bellingham must accept and respect his decisions. The Real Madrid forward showed his frustration after he was substituted by the German manager in England’s 2-0 win against Albania in the World Cup qualifier on Sunday.
Harry Kane scored a brace in the second half to help his team secure a win. This is England’s eighth win and eighth clean sheet in the qualifiers.
Bellingham was substituted in the 84th minute but the frustration on his face was palpable after he was asked to come off.
“That’s the decision, and he has to accept the decision,” the England manager said. “His friend is waiting on the sideline, so you need to accept it, respect it, and keep on going.”
Asked if Bellingham’s reaction flies in the face of what he has spoken about with regards to behaviour, Tuchel said: “I didn’t see it that way, I’m going to have to review it.
“I saw that he was not happy. I don’t want to make it bigger at the moment than it is.
“I think to a certain degree if you have players like Jude, who are so competitive, they will never like it, but, as you said, my word stands.
“It is about standards and level, and it’s a commitment to and respect to each other, so someone is waiting outside, and we will not change our decision just because someone is waving their arms.”
The former Chelsea manager showered praise on his team and said the World Cup XI is not on his mind. England also became the first European side to play at least six World Cup qualifiers and win them all without conceding.
“I don’t dare to think about a starting XI [at the World Cup] because there are so many months to play,” Tuchel said.
“But we learned so much today again, because it was a tough match, it was an emotional stadium. It felt like a cup game as a favourite, and then the underdog has quality and is well-drilled and waits for the chance.
“They have conceded five goals, we scored four [of them] and there’s only one other goal they conceded, so we knew we had to be patient.
“We knew we had to stay positive, don’t get frustrated, accept if a bounce, a second ball goes back to them, and they straightaway put it into their strikers.
“They celebrate corners like it’s already a goal, and stay committed to the basic things in football, and I think this is what we did.
“I just told the guys, I think we constantly progressed throughout the three camps. This is what we wanted.
“Congratulations to them, it was a pleasure to fight with them and push them from the sidelines.
“It’s hard to imagine now to not be on Wednesday, Saturday with them. Very hard to imagine that I will only see them again in March, but they did ever so well.”
