Stuart Pearce insists England’s players must seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win the World Cup. And the Three Lions icon says “fantastic” Thomas Tuchel can be the man to lead them to glory in the United States this summer.
Pearce is remembered as an England great and won 78 caps but only went to one World Cup, where he suffered semi-final heartbreak at Italia 90 when he missed in the shoot-out defeat to West Germany.
While people assume Pearce is a tub-thumping Englishman, the former Nottingham Forest left-back – nicknamed Psycho for his hard-man reputation – insists he believes Tuchel can provide the extra yard to get them over the line.
Pearce, 64, now a media pundit, said: “I’m excited. If I put my mind back as a player, coach or as a manager, you are nervous because you hope there are no injuries to key players.
OPINION
“From an individual point of view, I was an international for 12 years but I only went to one World Cup, so they come round quite rarely.
“The players should be looking forward to this. It’s a fantastic opportunity and even for me, working on the media side, it’s exciting times.
“Tuchel comes across really well. People pre-judge me and think maybe I don’t want a foreign manager at the helm of the England team like Sven Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello as well, who I worked with.
“But I think that whoever is the manager, we have to get right behind him. At talkSPORT, we did a long interview with him [Tuchel] last summer and he came across really well, very open. If you ask him a question, he will give you a straight answer. In this day and age, it’s quite rare. Especially in the position that he holds.
“If we get a bit of momentum as we’ve seen over the years, plus if he gets the formula right and the balance right, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”
View 3 ImagesPearce represented England at the World Cup and the European Championships(Image: Offside via Getty Images)
Pearce says England are probably among the second clutch of favourites to win the trophy, but they do possess global stars in Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham and that is at the heart of Pearce’s point: They may not get many more chances.
The Three Lions went close under Gareth Southgate. But now Tuchel – a Champions League-winning elite manager – has been brought in to win the World Cup.
Pearce added: “ France and Spain, if I had to pick two, that’s who I would call favourites. If you go down the pecking order, we’ll be a tough nut to crack. Put it that way.
“But I’m intrigued to see how we do because [Tuchel] was brought in to go a step further than Gareth Southgate did and Gareth took us to the latter stages of these tournaments. He’s got a fantastic record that I’m acutely aware of.
“We’re all intrigued how far Tuchel can take us. At the helm, maybe experiences do matter, but – as I found out in my time – it takes you a major tournament to work out what international football is all about.
View 3 ImagesThomas Tuchel and England are out to conquer the world at the World Cup(Image: Bradley Collyer/PA Wire.)
“You get a lot of managers come in and they think you can transfer what they’ve done at club level into the international fold.
“But the international fold is so different. How much to train the players at the end of the season, how much to rest them, all those type of things you get that with experience and Gareth picked up on that with his experience both as a player and as a coach.
“But it will be an intriguing and a great learning curve for Thomas Tuchel himself. I’m really pleased that his contract has been extended so there’s no boom and bust mentality after this.
“If his contract had run out this summer, they might have been turning round and they might have been saying, ‘Here you go, it didn’t work out, on you go’. But at least you can learn from it and improve for the next tournament.”
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