Thomas Tuchel welcomes club atmosphere growing in his England squad

Thomas Tuchel feels England are playing with the spirit and drive of a club team after following up their five-star display in Serbia by roaring out of the blocks against Wales.

An alarming June camp and last month’s flat Villa Park victory against minnows Andorra led questions to grow about the style and potential for success under the German coach.

But the Tuchel era came alive in Belgrade as September’s meet-up ended with a 5-0 World Cup qualification win against Serbia as the Euro 2024 runners-up passed their biggest test yet with flying colours.

England carried on where they left off at Wembley on Thursday, when Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Bukayo Saka goals inside the opening 20 minutes secured a 3-0 friendly win against Wales.

“At the moment, it’s very intense, it’s very demanding, but it’s very effective and they do it on a high, high level.

“I’m very delighted with the last two matches. We are absolutely on the right way and on the side it feels we show very good behaviour like a club team and this is what we want to do.

“This is the feeling that we want to create and the competition is on. You can feel it.

“The guys who play are happy to play, they want to keep their shirt. And the guys who come in instantly was seamless for the four of them, so well done.”

The performance against Wales helped validate Tuchel’s decision to keep with the group that starred in Serbia rather than bring back big names like Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden.

“The question is still why not (keep with the same group)? Because they did so well and now they showed another top performance,” the England boss told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“So well done, we have now a day off and we will enjoy the feeling.

“I think the players truly know what they put in this game to make it look like that.

“This is not easy and then we will prepare for the next qualifier because we want to have the next three points.”

England’s attention turns to Tuesday’s trip to Latvia, where they could seal early World Cup qualification depending on other Group K results.

Harry Kane comes back into contention after injury ruled him out of the Wales game, with Declan Rice taking the captain’s armband and impressing in midfield with inexperienced Elliot Anderson and Rogers.

“They are very, very good players,” Tuchel said of the trio. “They love to play with each other.

“I think Declan is at the moment on some extraordinary level in club and international (football). This is really, really outstanding. The intelligence, the work ethic and the volume that Declan puts into every game is just outstanding.

“Morgan and Elliot are both humble players, physical players, very, very talented players and that’s a good mix.

“Everyone buys into the idea, everybody relies to each other, so I’m very happy, not only with the midfielders, but of course they were a solid block in the middle and I’m glad for them.”