Tuchel refuses to rest his England players despite grueling schedule

Four matches in eleven days. That's the demand facing the England national team during this extended international window, and Thomas Tuchel has no intention of lifting a finger to ease the load. Asked whether he would entertain calls from Premier League managers requesting he go easy on their players, the German's response was blunt.

"No, I don't take calls from Premier League managers," Tuchel said. "I never once called a national team manager. That's just how it is."

The manager enters this stretch with a thorn still in his side: the 3-2 defeat to Spain on Saturday at Wembley, a match that slipped through England's fingers in a nail-biting finish. And there's no time to lick the wounds. Tuesday brings a trip to Czechia, and another road game follows this weekend, this time in Croatia, both part of Nations League Group A3. This extended window will wrap up next Tuesday back at Wembley, again against the Czechs.

It's a schedule that punishes players already coming off a summer shortened by the World Cup, something Tuchel isn't blind to. But for him, that changes nothing: there's no easing off the gas now, not with qualification on the line in Prague.

"It would be madness"

Tuchel went further, laying out why, in his view, this kind of back-and-forth between clubs and national teams simply doesn't work in international football.

"I can't manage the players' workload. It's simply impossible. I knew that from the other side, as a club manager: it happened to me many times. If I called up a manager in Brazil or Argentina, they wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about. And the players wouldn't understand what I meant either."Thomas Tuchel

That's when he delivered the line that sums up his whole stance: for him, giving even an inch sends the wrong message to the locker room.

"Why would I do that and give the players the impression that it's fine to take a step back, split minutes, or sit out a game? Why would I do that? I would never do that. It's madness. We want to win the next match."Thomas Tuchel

There's no gray area in that stance. After the blow against Spain, which exposed some of the team's shortcomings, Tuchel would rather demand more than manage workloads. And with Czechia first and Croatia after that, the message to the locker room is the same one he gave the press: nobody holds anything back, not even in the fourth match of a window that's already been a long one for everyone involved.