Football Daily - England labour to Latvia win in World Cup qualifying

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

Darren Fletcher has reaction to England’s 3-0 win vs Latvia at Wembley in World Cup qualifying. He’s joined by Rob Green, Izzy Christiansen, senior reporter Ian Dennis and correspondent John Murray. Also hear from England manager Thomas Tuchel, full debutant Morgan Rogers and defender Marc Guehi.13:10 Marc Guehi INTERVIEW 17:00 Morgan Rogers INTERVIEW 20:00 Thomas Tuchel INTERVIEWBBC Sounds / 5 Live commentaries this week: Wed 2000 Arsenal v Real Madrid in UEFA Women’s Champions League, Thu 2000 Chelsea v Man City in UEFA Women’s Champions League.

BBC Sounds music radio podcast. The Football Daily podcast with Daryl Fletcher. England 3, Latvia nil, two wins for Thomas Tuchel in his first two games as England boss. Top of the World Cup qualifying group without conceding a goal, Rob Green, Izzy Christiansen, John Murray, and Ian Dennis are all with us. And Rob, you said in commentary that Thomas Tuchel's probably got the bare minimum from these two games. So how does he get more than the bare minimum moving forward?

I think you're looking at players and saying, well, OK, here's the timing of runs. Here's the movements that we want and working on that. And you're looking at players that say, right, we've got to set up a structure, is this how we're going to see England play, period? Is this the way? Because I think it needs a lot of work.

I think it needs a lot of work with the players that he's got, the players that aren't here, everybody to understand, and to go back to before the game, what we were talking about, how good Spain were, they worked and worked and worked how good Spain were they worked and worked and worked on that shape they worked on the timing of their runs the dynamics the angles everything about it they've got quality players of course but England have those quality players they've got to gain that understanding whether it's against the low block of Latvia whether it's

against the high press of Spain or Germany or whoever might be in the World Cup. They need to get it nailed down. I think that's what they need to work on. That's how we expect more. You see, you described the performances flat, which if that's the case with a new manager, that's a sad indictment of the start. You would suspect at least that you'd get that little bit of oomph from the players,

players who want to make a mark, players who want to impress the new man. I'm guessing that you don't feel you've seen that. Well it's interesting, I say flat because it was, it was slow, it was laboured but I do sympathise with the fact that you can only play what's in front of you. And if you play, you know, play tennis, play paddle tennis, if you play with people less, lesser standard than you, you tend to go to that level. And I think that by no means did England go to a team that's ranked 140th in the world tonight.

They certainly did impose their quality and dominance in spells. But fundamentally, I think England struggled to use the space and use the space that Latvia gave them, which wasn't very much. If you haven't seen it, but the average positions of all the players throughout the 90 minutes, everyone will have been camped in Latvia's half. Every single player, a rare moments where Latvia even tried to break out of their defensive structure. So England just kept on having to bang the drum and try and break them down. Once again, as they did on Friday night there, and you break out of their defensive structure. So England just kept on having to bang the drum and try and break them down. Once again as they did on Friday night Darren you can probably hear

it just in the background they're playing the Bachmann Turner overdrive classic. You ain't seen nothing yet and I hope that is the case with Thomas Truckelsand. Yeah quite appropriate John it's a good it's a good choice isn't it. Rob you know what I'm struggling with here? Go on. I'm struggling with the fact, excuse know what I'm struggling with here? Go on. I'm struggling with the fact... Excuse me. I'm struggling with my throat for a start, but I'm struggling with the fact that this England team has just lost the European Championship final to Spain,

and now we're analysing what they can do against Albania and Latvia. It seems like a scenario that they shouldn't be in. This is about a manager coming in for 18 months to try and win a World Cup and now we're looking at what they do against Albania and Latvia with a 2-0 and a 3-0 and driving ourselves mad by what we're seeing. But this is not about games like this. This is about whether he's the manager that can do better than Gareth Southgate did when it really matters in a major tournament. What are we seeing based on that that can give us some kind of hope for the future? Because that's what it's all about, Robert,

at the end of the day. Not whether we can beat Latvia and Albania at Wembley. Most people can do that. Derek, we are talking about this game and seeing it how we see it and is he's right It's been it's been flat as a as an event like there's a huge huge asterisk next to these two games in that when we get to the knockout stages of a World Cup the final rounds hopefully that we see England in and and You know and we're looking at these games against the bigger opposition And if we do go on to see England get to the final or go on and even win it or whatever it might be, I don't think there'll be any

one of us who'll look back and go, oh, do you remember those games against Latvia and Albania? I don't think any of us will. I think there's such a point where you're kind of looking at it saying, well, it serves the purpose of getting everybody together, the manager putting across his ideas, the groundwork being put in. I'm trying to come up with positives here Fletch for these games because you're right it's such a difficult difficult proposition to even bring it into the same realm as potential World Cup winners or candidates. But that asterisk that you're talking about, you can apply the asterisk, I can tell you now, for the 7th of June away to Andorra, for the 10th of June at the City Ground when they take on Senegal

that are friendly, and the 6th of September for Andorra at home. England's test will be in Belgrade on the 9th of September away to Serbia. But apart from that, you know, England might already well be on the case to qualifying anyway that the set of games for the rest of this calendar year will not pose the test that the ones that Darren's talking about come the World Cup. Are there games after that that are going to give that test? No because after Serbia no they've got they've got Wales at home in a friendly Latvia away Serbia at home and then Albania away. Then they'll wait to see should England qualify. I mean Serbia probably the best next best side in group K haven't even

kicked a ball yet. But you know so we're not I'm not being arrogant to suggest England will top the group. But then they'll have to see the draw and then work out the schedule for America in 2026. But Gareth Southgate, when he played Friendlies, got top level opposition. They tested themselves. The Nations League, when they were in the top league, they tested themselves against the best. Senegal and Wales, with the greatest of respect, and also the teams such as Andorra and Latvia are not going to test England. So how does he do it then, Izzy? How does he get this team battle-hardened in his method, in his way,

to go into a major tournament based on that list of fixtures that Ian's just given us, which is what England have for the rest of this calendar year? Serbia away and Belgium is the only one that jumps out of the pages as tricky. And that's a game that England are going to start as clear favourites in as well. That's just the most difficult of this slate of games. So how does he on this short term contract get this team ready for the last 20 minutes against the French in a World Cup semi-final, when Deschamps starts to make his changes, and England couldn't cope with that before.

How does he get them ready for that moment, based on the opposition he's got? Well, building that belief within the group, building that sort of snappy winning mentality that he will be demanding of the players behind the scenes on the training pitch, but, you know, as Dano's just listed there, that the fixtures coming up for the rest of the calendar year, they're not necessarily hugely exciting, but they're an opportunity

for Tuko to continue this kind of the building of the squad behind the scenes. And he spoke about it, you know, this week with Dano, with John Murray around, he's getting in this introduction into international football. It's a completely different dynamic as a player, I'm sure as a coach as well, because I think I said it earlier, you're putting a jigsaw together that you haven't actually got the pieces or access to the pieces every single day like you do in club football. But you just go to the game tonight and, you know, Denno listed off in commentary the leagues that some of the Latvian players play in. And then you look at our players and we're playing across the Premier League, the Bundesliga, La Liga, you know, all these top, top teams playing for Champions League football.

And we should be beating these teams convincingly. But when a team drops off, Rob, I don't know if you can back me up here, but I played in these games myself, you know, similar sort of fixtures at international level. And it is hard to break teams down despite the level disparity and unfortunately I don't think Tuchel is going to get exactly what he wants from the opposition in this calendar year so we have to strap ourselves in and just go with the flow see what happens. I played Andorra here and I touched the ball less times than we scored goals so it's kind of it's that sort of game

where you're just looking out thinking well you're not going to learn anything from it you've just got to get through it. I's that sort of game where you're just looking at thinking, well, you're not going to learn anything from it, you've just got to get through it. I think that one of the key points is when we are preparing for those moments in that tournament is the tournament itself, the World Cup itself, is going to take an eternity. It's such a long tournament now that from the kickoff in the first game you think of Argentina winning the cup, they lost their first game to Saudi Arabia and they built something from there. So you're looking and saying even before the tournament begins the final, the knockout stages feels like an eternity away. This is a short-term contract with Tomasukil. The

final, the World Cup still feels like such a long way away. Yeah. Let's look on the positives then. What impressed you if anything tonight, Rob? Rhys James's free kick did. Yeah, yeah. We're all with that one, yeah. No, he was great. I thought he did really well. He lasted the 90 minutes he played and did as well as you could expect him to do in the role that he had. I think Lewis Skelly did well coming into that midfield without setting the world alight. And then Evo Richer-Ezza coming on, I think he showed a point, a difference. I think he showed something that he... he showed what he can do. And I

think there wasn't many people who did that. You're looking at a lot of players who showed flashes maybe. Morgan Rodgers did it, showed flashes and obviously one or two, Drew Bellingham obviously showed him in small amounts what he could do but every chair's a when he opened up and he had his little feet at the moment with his feet for the goal and then for the crosses buying himself a bit of space for a moment of quality. He did that. So there were one or two spots in there but only a few. Yeah for those who like this kind of thing he's the first defender to score a direct free-kick goal for England at Wembley since Stuart Pearce against Turkey in 1992 so it's been a while. I was trying to keep my eye on Thomas Tuchel as much as I could on the television Izzy you had a much better view of him there at Wembley.

He cuts a frustrated figure at times. I mean, he's never won, is he, for keeping his emotions in check? You know exactly what he's feeling. We learned that when he was at Chelsea. And there were quite a few occasions, I thought, tonight where you could see that he wasn't getting what he expected to get from either certain individuals or certain passages of play. So I thought there was a fair deal of frustration from him in general tonight as well, which was quite telling.

Yeah, 100% agreed and I was watching him as well with great interest in that technical area down in front of us. And it was interesting that when he made the triple substitution in the second half, he brought on Ezra first and then he made the triple change. And the body language and the information that Tuco was saying to the players coming off was hurry up. Hurry up, get off the pitch. We want to make these changes. I.e. he wanted to retain the intensity of the game. He wants a transitional game of football.

We saw that at Chelsea. We've seen it in Paris Saint-Germain. We've seen it in Bayern Munich. He wants high intensity, exciting football. And he wants this England team to look like that and be like that and behave like that. like we said earlier we can cut it to pieces and try and get to the nitty-gritty of why it didn't look like that tonight and the bottom line is you are not going to create a game like that

against Latvia and for him in international football, this is his first job in international football, he's probably going to learn the hard way that it isn't as exciting as club football, let's be really honest, until England, until we get to major tournaments and things start to heat up, but we've got to ride it out for now. Ian, you spent some time this week chatting to Declan Rice about leadership in the England team and we spoke about that prior to kick-off and that's been a real topic of conversation which was raised by the manager. One of these leaders he's hoping is going to be Jude Bellingham. Leadership has to be not diving into tackles like that because

theoretically you should have got sent off tonight. Yeah, booked close to the first half time of the first half and then the second half dived into a challenge which was against one of the defenders which could have easily resulted in a second yellow card, Jokowskis, a little fortunate. Thomas Tuchel has talked about how at times he can be quite emotional on the pitch and sometimes he might need to channel that a little bit better. The other thing about the leadership is that Declan Rice talked about taking ownership on the pitch and I think we saw that with a Harry Kane goal. Here let me just jump in if I can because John Murray's waiting to talk to us in the tunnel with Mark Gahey, John. Yes, more importantly Mark Gahey's waiting to talk to us. So Mark, what do you make of that?

Good win, clean sheet and job done. One of those sort of matches wasn't it again, very like Friday night? Yeah, teams are going to come here and make it very difficult for us. Low block teams, so you know, got to find a way to unlock those defences and you know, I think we did a good job today as a team. These matches are all about just getting the job done, yeah? Yeah, getting the job done, but you know, finding rhythm, building connections, building relationships, you know, keeping standards high as much as possible. So yeah, I think overall it's been a good week. A big night for Rhys James and Barice Eze to score their first goals for England. What

about that free kick? Rhys has got that ability, we all know that. The unbelievable free kick, so happy for him being back in the fold and doing so well. And then Ebb's my mate, I'm over the moon for him. Every time he's come on he's had a big chance so you know I'm glad I once got in for him. Were you like me and wondering whether that might actually be an own goal but I think it is his isn't it? Yeah these days you never know to be honest but yeah I'm glad I'm glad it was on target and then they gave it to him which is good. Yeah and you know tell us a little bit about him,

you know him inside out, what it will mean to him tonight to have got off the mark for England? Do you know what, I think maybe a little bit of relief, someone who is extremely humble, someone that works extremely hard, always smiling, always joyful around the place, and an amazing talent. I'm glad for him and his family that they get to experience that today. Just a final word you know the first two matches under Thomas Tuchel clearly room for improvement. There's always room for improvement we've got a long way to go until you know hopefully reaching our target which is qualifying so yeah hopefully keep doing what we're doing

and building on performance studies. Thanks Mark, thanks for coming over. Cheers, thank you. That's Mark Gaye in conversation with John Murray. Reece James has been speaking on the television. He said to ITV, it's been a long time, I've had a frustrating two and a half years. I was a bit surprised to see it hit the back of the net. That's in relation to his free kick. Thought the keeper might have got there,

but watching the replay, maybe that was harsh. And on Thomas Tuchel as the England manager, he says his ideas are clear. His goals and targets were set out the minute he came in. was harsh and on Thomas Tuchel as the England manager he says his ideas are clear, his goals and targets were set out the minute he came in, he had one objective and he's made that clear this week. One thing that will please him Ian and I'll come to you because I cut you off in your prime is the fact that in the two games so far he's got a goal in each of them from Harry

Kane. The other three scorers I think I'm right in saying have all scored their first England goal, Miles Lewis Skelly, Ezra, have all scored their first England goal. Miles Lewis, Skelly, Eze tonight and also Rhys James as well. So from that perspective, that's got to be seen as a positive new players on players coming back in or whatever the scenario is, but getting their England goal, which is going to give them confidence. Yeah. And Harry Kane is somebody who you can rely on. He's now scored 64 of his 71 goals in 88 competitive

games for England. You know and I got the sense when I was speaking with with Harry Kane last week there was a feeling that he's underappreciated but his record just speaks for itself. And the point I was making before we went to Mark Gay is that it was Declan Rice talking about taking ownership on the field and it was his burst down the right hand side that crossed the ball. I'll tell you what Darren, I'm really going to be looking forward to hearing Thomas Tuchel because he pulled no punches on Friday night, he described it as an okay-ish performance, he's not bothered about upsetting the players, he'll say it to them and he was talking in the build-up to the game that if we're in a video room and you're going through the video clips he doesn't want the criticism to be saying,

right, I want you in this position, I want you there, just to be in the isolation of that video room. He feels he should be able to wear it. I've got to stop you again, Deno. It's always you. It's Morgan Rogers now. He's with John. Yes, it is. Morgan Rogers making his first start for England here at Wembley tonight.

It was hard work, Morgan, but a big night in your life, a big night in your career, wasn't it? Yeah, it's a dream come true. It's a moment to remember for sure. Loved it just being out there with the boys, trying to show them about. We knew it was going to be difficult. We knew they were going to defend well

and kind of a low block, and we'd have to break them down. And we had to be patient, and we were. But I thought our quality showing, probably could have scored a few more but yeah delighted all around and really enjoyed it. When you were first called up you struck me with how you spoke about playing for England and I know Thomas Tuchel's been naming his team very late for these matches so when did you find out today? Yeah not long before we came to the stadium actually, so not much time to prepare but that's the

way it is. We get used to it, we just deal with it as players, we're all ready to play it if and when called upon and it gives that continuity that we know that we all can play, we don't know who's going to play and we're all ready. We were today and whoever was called upon I thought played really well, even off the bench and we all made an impact so it's really good. You must have been desperate to get your first start Yeah, of course. That's what that's what you want to do when you play football You want to you don't want to sit on the bench you want to play you want to be eager But I know I've got to wait my time

I've got great players that have played loads of caps that I'm trying to learn off trying to trying to get experiences often and try And show what I'm about at the same time and yeah, thankfully I got my chance and hopefully I can get many more in the future. To what extent do you think you showed your best tonight? You had a couple of chances later on. I'm probably disappointed I didn't score. That would have been nice to cap off the game but I thought I was growing in confidence throughout the game and being more positive when I got the ball and ultimately they seemed to show what I'm about so just to go and do that and try and pick up in areas and get on the ball and try and make things happen. I'm not always going to get it right but

I know that nine times out of ten if I do the right things that good things will come from that and I just got to keep going. And just give us an idea what your impressions been of Thomas Tuchel this week? Yeah from what I've seen so good so far the way he speaks to you, the way he interacts with you is so nice it's very much chilled and relaxed and you can be yourself around him but when it's time to work it's time much chilled and relaxed and you can be yourself around him but when it's time to work, it's time to work and we've had to take on a lot of information on board this week of his ideas of how he wants to play and the structure of the team and I thought we'd done really well to take it on board

to learn from the first game into the second game and yeah we've just got to keep building, keep pushing, we know what the end goal is and it's all about building and stepping stones as a group together to get to that point so we will do. Exciting times for you aren't they, starting for England, Champions League quarter-final, FA Cup quarter-final? Yeah, everything's going well right now, we just need to take it game by game, start by a step and see where we go and hopefully we can get something at the end of it. Good luck with it. Thanks Morgan.

Thank you John, thank you Morgan. There's a young man who's been one of the revelations of the season, taken to the Champions League like a duck to water, tried to do his thing for England as well tonight. He's had a fantastic season. You were saying you wonder what Thomas Tuchel will say by way of assessment. John Murray is with the England manager. Here he comes, Thomas Tuchel, congratulations. The day started with us on Radio 5 Live, we were speaking to the Prime Minister this morning

and at the end of the day we're speaking to the Prime Minister this morning and at the end of the day we're talking to the England head coach. What do you think tonight Thomas? Three nil but hard work again? Yeah, yeah, hard work is good. It's good because I learn about my team, my team learns about me. It's good that we, honestly it's good that we have these qualifiers because it brings a little bit of tension when the going gets tough. What happens, who reacts and this is how we get to know the players and how they handle the pressure.

It's important to get better and to improve. Overall the camp was fantastic. The performances in both matches I guess was okay. We were today more aggressive. You could see after the second goal what kind of freedom and excitement and rhythm it brings, how the pressure falls off the shoulders and we could have scored more. But we didn't concede to clean sheets so there's a lot of positives to take away and still stuff to improve so it's a good start. As we discussed yesterday, how soon is it going to be before we see your England?

We haven't seen it yet. Yeah, but I cannot stand on the sideline and say when it's only okay that's not my England and when it's a good match then it's suddenly my England. It's my team and I take full responsibility and I will always fight with them because they did amazing in training and they behaved very, very good as a group. Today we were very strong from the bench, which I also told the guy can be very important. And it's just good to know some players play out of position, they play out of a system, new system, new information.

So taking all this to account and a little bit of tension because it's qualifiers and then we are the only team who needs to put all the effort constantly. It's a high level of focus needed and overall I'm very positive. One moment of high quality of course was Rhys James free kick. The guy is full of quality, there cannot be a doubt about it. I'm very happy that he trained now for several weeks without any problems. He's in very good shape, you could see it. Some amazing and just a proof of his quality. What about Jude Bellingham who got a yellow card and there was a moment there where we did wonder whether

there might have been a second one. Yeah it would have been harsh but it was possible so we took the decision to not gamble on that it was 1-0. A yellow red in the next challenge can change the whole momentum and that's why I mean we have Phil Foden on the bench to play in this position. So it was an obvious choice to do it. So there we are, two matches, two wins, six points. You like the sound of that? Clean sheets, clean sheets, yeah, continue. But not now, again until June? Yeah, now again until June.

I will miss all of them because camp was great, energy was great and team spirit was good. Now we need to stay in touch, we need to keep this thing going, we cannot wait until June but of course the focus goes now to club football for the players. I will be at their side and I will observe and be at their side and not lose connection of course that we are ready in June. Well done, thanks Thomas. Cheers, thank you Thomas Twickel. So he obviously

feels that there's room for improvement as well? Yeah and you see that the players can do it and that they can do it in moments or they did do it in moments tonight it just wasn't as often as frequent as you wanted I thought Mark Gahey's interview was the best where he literally answered with a shrug Well, you just said job done. Yeah, and that's about it That's pretty much what you can take from the games and like saying it's it's a start for him It's not a blistering start. We're not we're not talking about too cool ball or anything like that or revelations in football You know reinventing the wheel and that sort of thing. But quietly starting and winning and OK, let's get on and he'll take away

some what he wants to take away from these games. But we'll know that there's room for improvement. Rob, thank you, as always. Izzy, thank you. Dan, apologies for constantly interrupting you when you're in your prime. But thank you. No worries, I finished that second point. That was all right. I just managed to squeeze it in. That's our team at Wembley tonight, they've been fantastic for me.

Dennis, Izzy Christiansen, Rob Green and correspondent John Murray. That's it for this episode of the Football Daily. The next one will be the Women's Football Weekly. of the century. It's pandemonium, it's ecstasy. It's an authoritarian regime. For the past 15 years, English football has been dominated by Manchester City. Eight Premier League titles, six league cups, three FA Cups, one Champions League. And they're going for it! And more than 100 charges.

Somebody turned up at the Etihad Stadium and effectively served papers. I'm Clive Myrie, and this is Football on Trial, Somebody turned up at the Etihad Stadium and effectively served papers. I'm Clive Myrie and this is Football on Trial, the Manchester City Charges. They believe they've got irrefutable evidence. Listen on BBC Sounds.