2026-06-02 10:38:21
Thomas Tuchel claims that he and his England players have “full belief” that they can win the World Cup this summer.
The majority of Tuchel’s 26-man squad flew to Miami on Monday (01.06.26) to begin a 10-day hot weather acclimatisation camp to prepare them for the tournament in North America and the coach says conversations with the players have left him convinced that they have the ability to end a 60-year wait for major tournament glory this summer.
Tuchel told Sky Sports News: “When I reconnected with the games and built our training sessions and meetings to reconnect the team in Florida with what we have built already, I saw a lot of quality.
“That instantly gave me the full belief and excitement that we can go a long way.
“Then things like the difficult phone calls, big phone calls, positive phone calls and the reaction of the players, it tells you that we have a connection already.
“It tells me the players care and they care so much. We had beautiful, touching reactions, even from players who were not called up and they were wishing us all the best. The way they reacted tells me we are on the right way and that gets me personally excited to be close.
“I can’t wait to get on the plane, look over my shoulder, finally have a team behind me and arrive in Florida and do what I love the most, which is be a coach.”
The Three Lions will have to cope with intense heat at this summer’s tournament but Tuchel insists that the climate must not be an excuse for his players.
Tuchel said: “The conditions are not our biggest enemy but it is not to our advantage after a long and very demanding season for our players.
“We are not used to being in this kind of heat and humidity, and even altitude if we play in Mexico.
“There will be a lot of challenges in this World Cup. The heat is one of them but we are prepared already.
“We know the individual reaction of the players to the heat and we have cooling strategies in place.
“We’ve had help from Team GB and specialists all over the world to come up with solutions that help the players to adapt.
“We know exactly the amount of time we want to expose them in pre-camp, the ideal amount of time that you should train in the sun and that we also don’t do too much.
“Then the reality is that the first game [against Croatia on June 17) is indoors and the air conditioning is on, so it should not be a problem. From there, we have to adapt.
“It is a factor but it should not come across that we are already making excuses. It’s just not in our favour and it is an obstacle to overcome.”
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