Thomas Tuchel lifts lid on Haaland apology and explains how England can stop him | Football | Sport

Thomas Tuchel cracked a self-deprecating joke while making clear that England cannot afford to take their eyes off Erling Haaland. He took a gentle swipe at German newspaper Bild when reminded that they had named him Coach of the Year following his Champions League triumph with Chelsea in 2021.

In the wake of that victory, Tuchel revealed he had sought to sign Haaland from Borussia Dortmund, later issuing an apology for his remarks. Haaland went on to join Manchester City a year afterwards.

“I always need to apologise,” smiled Tuchel. “They don’t get my humour! Anyway, were you surprised that Bild gave me an award?

“Yeah… there was no way out. Because if Jurgen Klopp won at the same time the Charity Shield they give it to him.”

Tuchel was in a playful mood, perhaps one way of keeping his mind off the daunting prospect of facing Norway’s talisman Haaland, who has already netted seven goals at this World Cup.

The former Chelsea manager acknowledges that Norway boast further attacking threats, yet insists the “full focus” of his backline will be firmly trained on nullifying Haaland.

Tuchel added: “You can’t avoid focusing, for sure not. There is so much quality in these moments and you have to make decisions, how to defend it. He will always arrive on the second post.

“The whole world knows it. He loves to arrive on the second post so the question is when to make contact with him.

“It’s also a type of defender type of thing. Some defenders like to stay zonal and get the earlier jump, some defenders like to step back and start fighting with him on the ground physically, but then he pushes you maybe aside and gets a free header.

“If you stay zonal he jumps over you. So he has all the weapons once you arrive in the box. There are of course ways to make life hard for him when he starts accelerating and when they play long balls.

“Because Norway are not shy to play long balls in to (Alexander) Sorloth and he starts bullying people, that’s what he does. So it’s a team effort but of course the full focus of our central defenders will be on him (Haaland).”