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Thomas Tuchel has now been confirmed as the new England manager.
The appointment obviously prompting much debate.
Is Thomas Tuchel the best person for the job?
If it should have been somebody else, who would have been the better candidate?
Here is one take on the appointment of the German manager to be the national team boss of England…
After Thomas Tuchel announced as the new England manager, former player Dean Ashton talking on Sky Sports News:
“I am a little bit underwhelmed.
“I am not going to lie.
“I don’t particularly enjoy watching a Thomas Tuchel team.
“I don’t think it is attack first.
“It is more a defensive structure.
“Yes he won the Champions League with Chelsea but… Frank Lampard had got them through the group stages.
“And Pep Guardiola picked a totally bizarre team in the final.
“I don’t feel massively excited.”
Hmmm, so Thomas Tuchel fluked the Champions League triumph and it was actually good old Frank Lampard who deserved the credit?
I know he doesn’t actually come out and say it here but I think we can be pretty confident that if given the choice. Dean Ashton would prefer Frank Lampard to have got the England job over Thomas Tuchel.
That is Frank Lampard who has been a total failure at Chelsea, Everton and… Chelsea again.
As compared to Thomas Tuchel who has won the Champions League, as well as the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 (twice), a number of domestic cups in both Germany and France as well as the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA World Club Cup.
Thomas Tuchel picking up personal awards as well, named Bundesliga coach of the season in 2015/16, UEFA coach of the year 2020/21, Best FIFA football coach 2021 and so on…
When speaking on Sky Sports, Dean Ashton makes specific reference to that 2020/21 season at Chelsea, when Frank Lampard was sacked on 25 January 2021 and Thomas Tuchel appointed the following day.
In his 19 Premier League games that season, Frank Lampard had won only eight of 19 with Chelsea, drawing five and losing six.
Thomas Tuchel in his 19 in the second half of that season only lost three PL matches, winning eleven and drawing five.
It is comical how Dean Ashton wants to give credit to Frank Lampard for that Champions League trophy win BUT not Thomas Tuchel!
Frank Lampard got Chelsea out of a Champions League group that involved Krasnodar, Rennes and Sevilla.
With all the hard work already done, it was then simple for Thomas Tuchel to get Chelsea to win home and away against Athletico Madrid, beat Porto over two legs, win against Real Madrid at home and draw against them away, before beating Manchester City in the final.
Worth pointing out a couple of other things that season.
Frank Lampard lost five of his last eight Premier League matches before getting sacked by Chelsea, yet Thomas Tuchel came in and turned things around and got Chelsea a top four final placing.
Also, whilst Lampard’s Chelsea lost 3-1 at home to Man City that season, Thomas Tuchel oversaw three victories in the second half of that season, one in which Manchester City won the title 12 points clear.
Chelsea won 2-1 at The Etihad under Thomas Tuchel that season, as well as beating them in the FA Cup semi-final AND the Champions League final.
Which brings me to the wider picture.
For the likes of many ‘experts’, journalists, pundits, newspapers, it HAD to be an Englishman who should have got the job.
I agree that ideally it would be somebody English but who was there?
Eddie Howe and Graham Potter would have both been great choice but neither wanted the job.
Lee Carsley had never managed a single match in senior football, for club or country, until these last four games as temporary England boss AND he refused to say whether he even wanted the job.
The next Englishman in the betting? Frank Lampard, who was a 50/1 shot for a reason! Well, reasons!!
Basically, he is hopeless. Has shown less than nothing as a manager.
So, should we have employed Frank Lampard instead of Thomas Tuchel?
That would have been ridiculous.
I have total contempt for The FA in many ways BUT this time, they had no choice.
The FA and England have a number of problems, when it comes to no decent level English managers available AND wanting the job.
I think a big problem now is that the older generation of English managers, who should have been able to step in ideally, are all useless. The likes of Allardyce, Pardew, McClaren and Bruce would all love to have the job but are unemployed/unemployable, in Jamaica, Blackpool etc.
Then we have that golden era of vastly overrated players.
So many of them dubious of character and not one of them has made a half decent manager.
Rooney, Gerrard, Cole, Owen, Terry, Campbell, Scholes, Ferdinand, Beckham, Seaman… Lampard.
The very worst one for me, would have been having John Terry as England manager. I really despise him. I had to search online to find out what he is up to these days, turns out he is now an academy coach at Chelsea!
Put it this way.
As a Newcastle United fan, if at sometime in the future, Eddie Howe was no longer Newcastle manager, who would I want as his replacement, if the choice was Thomas Tuchel or Frank Lampard?
I rest my case!!!