Former England national team defender Gary Neville considered that the English Football Association's decision to appoint German Thomas Tuchel as national team coach raises serious questions about the Three Lions' training standards.

Tuchel (51 years old), the former coach of Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, is the first German to coach the England national team and the third foreign coach to hold the position, after Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello.

Neville told Sky Sports, referring to FA officials: “They have probably got the best coach available in the world at this moment. He fits exactly the criteria they were looking for.”

He added: “I am not sure that the step of appointing him meets the criteria for selecting national team coaches, the trust given to English coaches, and the development of the performance of English teams over the past few years.”

He continued: “Everyone in our country, including me, wishes him all the best, and we hope that we can win a championship, but I think there are some serious questions that the English FA must answer, regarding the standards of training the national team. I think We are doing ourselves a disservice by accepting that Tuchel is better than other English coaches.”

"International competition"

Tuchel, who will be assisted by English coach Anthony Barry, will begin his mission in January, before England begins its participation in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

England reached the final of the European Championship in 2020 and 2024, and the semi-final of the World Cup in 2018, but it has not been able to win any prominent title since the 1966 World Cup.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said: “I am not more patriotic than others and I am not saying that the England coach should be this or that. It is not about England.”

He added: “It is an international competition, and its main goal, especially with the major teams competing for titles, is for our best to face their best.”