England manager Thomas Tuchel is determined to harness Jude Bellingham’s “fire” to his side’s advantage rather than the Real Madrid star intimidating team-mates or raging at referees.
Tuchel suffered his first defeat in four games as England boss on Tuesday when Senegal became the first African side to ever beat the Three Lions in a 3-1 friendly win.
Bellingham thought he had made it 2-2 late on at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground only for the goal to be controversially disallowed before Senegal broke away for a third in stoppage time.
Tuchel had to restrain Bellingham’s protests at the decision at full-time and said it is a balancing act to retain the 21-year-old’s fight without it bubbling over.
“He has a certain something and brings an edge. It’s needed if we want to achieve big things,” Tuchel told talkSPORT.
“It needs to be channeled towards the opponent and towards our goal, and not to intimidate team-mates or be aggressive towards team-mates or referees but always on winning.
“He has the fire — I don’t want to dim that, he should play with that as that’s his strength.
“But the fire comes also with some attribute that can intimidate teammates. Sometimes you see the explosion towards referees and the anger in his game.
“If he can channel this in the right way, he has something that we need, and that edge is hard to find.”
Tuchel, who won the Champions League at Chelsea and league titles with Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, was hired with the task of ending England’s wait for a major tournament victory since 1966.
Under Gareth Southgate, they reached the final of each of the last two Euros, plus a quarter-final and semi-final of the past two World Cups.
Tuchel has a richly talented squad to choose from but has so far failed to find the right blend in three underwhelming World Cup qualifying wins over Albania, Latvia, and Andorra before the Senegal defeat.
“I already have an idea of what to do,” he added with one year to go till the 2026 World Cup begins.
“We did some experiments in the second camp; not everything was bad. We did some good things, but the two games were not good enough.
“It was a good learning and it brings clarity. Each game is a learning situation and helps us mold the team and find solutions.
