Roy Keane hit out at England after a miserable end to an underwhelming June international camp by saying âsomething is missingâ from Thomas Tuchelâs side.
Having laboured to a 1-0 win over 173rd-ranked Andorra on Saturday, the Three Lions were beaten by African opposition for the first time in their history at the City Ground on Tuesday night.
Though Senegalâs 3-1 victory in Nottingham earned nothing more than pride, it dented Englandâs significantly given the manner of the performance from the hosts.
Tuchel named a much-rotated â though still capable â side with 10 changes from the win in Barcelona, but fringe goalkeeper Dean Henderson emerged as one of few to impress given the amount of work he was given to do by his colleagues.
England were booed off for the second time in three days having been soundly beaten on home soil, and though Keane urged the Three Lions not to panic, he questioned the character of Tuchelâs squad in their response to Senegalâs bright performance.
âSenegal played with freedom, enjoyment and a bit of quality,â Sky Sports pundit Keane told ITV. âThey were gifted a couple of goals but the last one was excellent on the counter-attack.
âEngland, on the one hand you donât want to overreact but the signs arenât great. Itâs been a bad couple of days for them. They had the dream start, go 1-0 up, made some good changes but it wonât be a good summer break for the manager.
âHeâll be concerned. Weâre on the outside looking in, but thereâs something missing. They donât look like a happy group.
âNot in the sense of being disappointed with the result, are they all in it together? Is there that proper spirit in the group? Iâm not so sure.
âEngland were off it in every aspect of the game, physically, mentally, hunger â every aspect of the game.â
Keane unimpressed with Walker over Senegal opener
Keane was particularly unimpressed with Englandâs reaction to the first two goals, singling out 96-cap Kyle Walker for his sluggish attempts to avert Senegalâs equaliser, as well as the defenceâs general response to falling behind with the visitorsâ second.
âIf this is a young right-back starting out in the game, youâre thinking inexperience,â he said. âPeople talk about a lack of concentration, I think Walker is being lazy. Heâs a vastly experienced player, and he canât be bothered getting back in.
âHeâs on his heels. Heâs had a difficult few months but for a vastly experienced player, you canât be doing that.
âBoth of the first two goals [England] conceded tonight, I donât see them getting hold of each other. You donât throw each other under the bus but you start shouting at each other, telling them to do their job.
âFor the second goal, they are having a chat like they are in Starbucks. âMaybe I should have gone for that.â Do your job! That is what good team-mates do. Do your job or we are in trouble.â
Tuchel defended his decision to select the out-of-form defender in his press conference, pointing to his previous international performances and his professionalism during the camp.
âIt counts what he did in the first camp,â he said. âBoth matches were good, he was a regular player for a long time at AC Milan then broke his elbow. He came back early and struggled to get that rhythm back.
âHe trained at the highest level in camp, he took responsibility and helped everyone out and pushed the standards and the level. He deserved to play.
âI see the lack of rhythm clearly, in misjudgements in duels and anticipation, of course. Thatâs the nature of a June camp and a player who has not had every minute in his legs lately.â
Kane: England must improve quickly with World Cup on horizon
Captain and goalscorer Harry Kane struck a similar note of caution as Keane about overreacting given Tuchel has managed only four matches across two international camps since taking over at the turn of the year.
But even the normally upbeat skipper admitted things must improve quickly with next summerâs World Cup only five camps away.
âAgain, itâs not really good enough,â he told ITV. âWe had moments, but with and without the ball weâre not quite finding the right passes and tempo.
âWeâre not going to panic but we know we have to be better. Thereâs some ideas which are new, some new players coming in who donât have experience internationally.
âThereâs no excuses, we have to find it quick. Weâre not meeting for a couple of months, the World Cup comes round really fast â so every camp is really important.
âOne-vs-one weâre losing duels, weâre losing that aggressive nature weâve had. Again, it wasnât good enough today.â
Tuchel âunsureâ what weight of England shirt means
The pressure associated with playing for England has long played its part as in the role dubbed the âimpossible jobâ, with the Three Lions manager tasked with building a team which can play with freedom.
That has rarely come to fruition despite the number of high-profile names to sit in the hot seat down the years. Tuchel, though, questioned whether it was anything more than an inevitable side-effect of a side who have reached three semi-finals and two finals across the last four major tournaments.
âIâm not so sure what it means, the weight of the shirt,â he said. âI think the expectation comes from results and the success Gareth had with the group and England.
âEngland was a regular in semi-finals and finals, that comes with it. You feel how the opponent approach matches, what it means to them to beat us.
âI heard it, because my changing room was next to the changing room of Senegal. I asked myself if we would have celebrated in the same manner, being the first in the dressing room and screaming about beating England and knocking my fists on some boxes?
âWould the players have joined in or thought I need to calm down? I donât think the players would be so happy or excited about it, because they demand it from themselves.
âMaybe the latest history brings with it that they think everything is normal, and we need to win in style, comfortably and beat everyone. It feels like that holds us down, because I see the smile, I see the liveliness in training and I tell you all the time I am excited about what I see.
âWeâre missing that translation to the pitch. We had our best phase at 2-1 down and that shows me that maybe some players thought they nothing to lose any more, nothing to hold onto. Then we found gaps, found turns and found one-on-ones offensively.â
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