Thomas Tuchel opened his England reign with a 2-0 win over Albania but said his team must improve and criticised Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden for not making an impact on the wings.

The new head coach delivered a honest critique of his first game in charge, saying there was a lack of discipline during a challenging second half and he was unimpressed with his wide players. Foden and Rashford were substituted after failing to seize a chance to impress from the start.

“We hope for more impact in these positions,” Tuchel said. “More dribbling and more aggressive runs towards the box. In general that was missing. The chances come from the little runs behind the line. They were not as decisive as they can be.”

Tuchel considered whether Foden lacks belief in an England shirt. “We will encourage him to do what he does best, to go at defenders, to go into dribbles,” the German said. “Both our wingers who started were not as impactful as they can be in club football. I’m not so sure why we struggled to bring the ball quickly to them.

“We lacked runs off the ball. It was a little bit too much passing, not enough dribbling, not aggressive enough towards goal. They trained very well, they were decisive in training. That’s why I also think they deserved [to start], they were very good in the last weeks with their clubs. We will keep on encouraging them.”

England’s start to their qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup was sparked by a debut goal from Myles Lewis-Skelly and a late strike from Harry Kane. The performance of Lewis-Skelly, the 18-year-old left-back, was a positive. “Amazing player, amazing personality,” Tuchel said. “He came into camp and showed straight away that it’s normal to fall in love with him. It is well deserved. He’s full of courage, full of quality.”

Tuchel’s target is to win the World Cup and he was adamant that England “have to do better”. He felt that his side lost confidence in their structure after half-time and were more open to counterattacks. “I need to watch the game and look for solutions,” he said.

Anthony Gordon, who came on in the second half, limped down the tunnel at full time and could be unavailable with a hip injury when England host Latvia on Monday. “It does not look good,” Tuchel said. “It is a bit worrying.”