Thomas Tuchel was involved in a fiery exchange with goalkeeper Jordan Pickford during England’s dramatic World Cup opener against Croatia, with reports claiming the Three Lions boss barked: “Do as I told you!”
The tense moment came after Harry Kane had put England ahead in Dallas with a retaken penalty, following a VAR intervention which ruled Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic had moved off his line too early.
Although television cameras missed the incident, Fox reporter Geoff Shreeves claimed Tuchel confronted Pickford after the Everton goalkeeper failed to carry out instructions while playing out from the back.
According to Shreeves, the England manager shouted: “Do as I told you!” before Pickford responded to his coach in an animated exchange.
The disagreement unfolded during a chaotic and entertaining first half that saw England twice surrender the lead.
Kane initially gave England the advantage after converting his second attempt from the spot, but Martin Baturina restored parity with a stunning strike for Croatia.
The England captain then headed home from a superb Declan Rice corner to make it 2-1, only for Petar Musa to equalise again in first-half stoppage time after beating Pickford from close range.
Tuchel cut an increasingly frustrated figure on the touchline as England’s defensive errors mounted. The German manager appeared unhappy with several aspects of his side’s display and kept his players in the dressing room longer than expected at the interval.
His assistant, Anthony Barry, did little to hide his concerns when speaking to ITV at half-time.
“I think a lot of nervous energy early on,” Barry admitted.
“Maybe that should be accepted, and maybe expected in the opening game of a World Cup.”
He continued: “From there, then we made some decisions where the energy was not free in our mind, playing long when we should play short, playing short when we should play long, really not playing through the gaps so not allowing us to accelerate our game the way we wanted to.”
“Then you think the penalty would free us up, allow us to play more like us, look more like ourselves, but again we fall back into some fearful patterns, and yeah… we’ve always been able to rely on set pieces.”
“We get the second goal again. We’re hoping that’s the moment that would allow us to move forward in the game, but okay, we concede the second goal later on, and now we have to speak about that at halftime.”
Whatever was said during the break appeared to have an immediate effect.
Less than two minutes after the restart, Jude Bellingham produced a moment of brilliance, surging clear before scoring a stunning solo goal to restore England’s lead.
England, among the favourites to lift the World Cup, are competing in Group L alongside Croatia, Ghana and Panama, with Tuchel hoping his side can quickly iron out the mistakes exposed in a pulsating opening encounter.
