Tuchel: Maybe James ‘goes with the England water polo team’

Joe Williams
Chelsea defender Reece James hobbles off the pitch

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel says he was “surprised” when England called up Reece James to their squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Hungary.

Gareth Southgate named James – who played the Blues’ last Premier League match against Manchester City – as one of eight defenders in his squad for the internationals later this month.

However, Tuchel joked that he will be playing for the water polo team rather than the football team with the right-back currently training in the swimming pool as he recovers from an injury.

Big Weekend: Liverpool v Man City, Chelsea, Solskjaer, Rodrigo

Tuchel told reporters: “When I saw it, I thought maybe Reece goes with the England water polo team as right now he is training in the pool,” said Tuchel.

“I was a bit surprised but I understood he was selected for the football team, so this will not happen as he is training in the pool right now.

“My last information is that he will not go so it can only be a misunderstanding and nothing else.

“Mason [Mount] is back and it was a minor injury and we are happy he is back. It is obviously a given he was picked [for England] and he will give his best for the squad.

“It would be nice to be selected [for Ben Chilwell]. He is proud to play for England and has the quality to play for England, but he understands he has to earn it with minutes.

“He has not had too many minutes so he can accept why he hasn’t been selected. Once he plays more for us and plays with quality, he will have the chance.”

Chelsea, who face Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday, have lost their last two matches in all competitions against Manchester City and Juventus.

And Tuchel says that the Blues faced two “extremes” against City and Juve last week, he added: “We have not trained a lot as we used yesterday for recovery and today the guys that travelled and played 90 minutes in Turin have not done a lot.

“We always demand the very best, no matter if we won or lost. Nobody likes to lose but we lost against Arsenal and then at Wembley [FA Cup final] last season and then came back strong against Leicester.

“We have to respect the quality of our opponents and it’s not a long time ago we played very good matches. The second half against Tottenham and then 10 changes in the Carabao Cup against a strong Villa side that won at Manchester United the week after.

“It’s about stepping up and improving and the games are very different to each other in the extremes. City is about high pressing and ball possession and Juventus is about deep defending and no ball possession, so we played against the extremes.

“What we can predict is another team with high pressing in Southampton.”

 

Chelsea Reece James

Related Articles