Thomas Tuchel appeared to clash with Jordan Pickford in a row over playing out from the back during England‘s World Cup opener against Croatia.
The Three Lions had gone ahead in Dallas through Harry Kane‘s retaken penalty when the dispute occurred.
The incident was not caught by the TV cameras but Geoff Shreeves, working as a reporter for Fox, claimed the England boss told his goalkeeper: ‘Do as I told you!’
Shreeves also claimed Pickford fired back at his manager, who seemed to have criticised the Everton star for failing to follow instructions by playing the ball in the wrong direction.
Kane had missed his initial spot-kick but referee Clement Turpin ordered a retake because Croatia’s Dominik Livakovic was deemed to be off his line.
Jordan Pickford appeared to clash with Thomas Tuchel during England’s World Cup opener
The England captain made no mistake after his VAR reprieve but Croatia equalised through Martin Baturina’s stunning strike.
Kane restored England’s advantage, heading home a superb Declan Rice corner, before Croatia levelled again in first-half stoppage time when Petar Musa beat Pickford from close range.
England emerged late for the second half after being kept in by Tuchel, who looked frustrated on the bench during an entertaining first 45 minutes.
The German appeared unhappy with his team’s performance after a series of mistakes, including for Croatia’s goals.
His assistant, Anthony Barry, was also critical of England during a half-time interview on ITV, describing the display as ‘complicated and confusing’.
‘I think a lot of nervous energy early on,’ said Barry. ‘Maybe that should be accepted, and maybe expected in the opening game of a World Cup.
‘From there, then we made some decisions where the energy was not free in our mind, playing long when we should play short, playing short when we should play long, really not playing through the gaps so not allowing us to accelerate our game the way we wanted to.
Thomas Tuchel cut a frustrated figure at times on the bench during a thrilling first half
‘Then you think the penalty would free us up, allow us to play more like us, look more like ourselves, but again we fall back into some fearful patterns, and yeah… we’ve always been able to rely on set pieces.
‘We get the second goal again. We’re hoping that’s the moment that would allow us to move forward in the game, but okay, we concede the second goal later on, and now we have to speak about that at halftime.’
It took England less than two minutes to go back in front after the restart as Jude Bellingham broke clear and scored a superb individual effort.
England, one of the favourites to win the World Cup, and Croatia are joined by Ghana and Panama in Group L.
