Thomas Tuchel hits out at Wembley crowd for being ‘silent’ and lacking ‘energy’ during England’s 3-0 friendly win over Wales

Thomas Tuchel didn’t hold back about the England supporters who watched their 3-0 win over Wales at Wembley, labelling them as ‘silent’ and not giving ‘any energy from the stands’.

The Three Lions’ friendly against their local rivals got off to a dream start as they scored all three of their goals inside the opening 20 minutes through Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Bukayo Saka.

England played with vim as they dominated proceedings against Wales in that period and it looked like they would add to the scoreline.

However, they failed to do so with the friendly going flat – and speaking post-match Tuchel attributed that in part to the lack of vocal home support.

Thomas Tuchel’s comments on England fans at Wembley

Speaking to ITV Sport post-match, he said: ‘We could have been 5-0 up at half-time. We couldn’t score the fourth and fifth ones. The stadium was silent. We didn’t get any energy back from the stands. We did everything to win.

‘Yes [we expected more from the fans]. What more can you give in 20 minutes? We didn’t let them escape. If you hear just Wales fans for half an hour, it’s sad because the team deserved more support today.’

Asked about his comments in his post-match presser, the German doubled down on his sentiments – pointing to examples when the England fan base has delivered.

‘I have said the support in Serbia [last month] was absolutely fantastic,’ he said. ‘I said it and I meant it, I love English football fans and support they give. The atmosphere did not match the performance on the field today.

‘We will have top support in Latvia, we had excellent support in Serbia. But today we were 3-0 up after 20 minutes, we had ball win after ball win and I felt, ‘why is the roof still on the stadium?’ It could have helped us in some moments in the second half.’

What next for England?

Tuchel, who joined as head coach just under a year ago, will hope England fans can will them to victory in their World Cup qualifier at Latvia on Tuesday night.

After the trip to Riga, England to Wembley to face Serbia on November 13 before concluding qualification at Albania on November 16.