Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic app.Ever since Thomas Tuchel took over as England head coach, the emphasis has all been in one direction: Premier League power, Premier League speed, using his players’ physicality as a battering ram until the opposition crumbles.But for the first time, as England prepare for their last-16 game in Mexico City on Sunday, the messaging has changed. Tuchel no longer wants England to speed up. He wants them to slow down.Because when England’s full-court press works, it can be irresistible. The second-half surge against Croatia in Dallas remains a high point for English attacking play in major tournaments in recent years. But there have been plenty of moments when England have looked impatient, frantic, risking losing control and losing their shape. If they do that in Mexico City, they will get punished, and their World Cup will be over.The issue is not one of effort, quite the opposite. Tuchel’s diagnosis is that England need to be smarter. “I feel that we are fully committed to our press,” he said. “But it’s not economical. We don’t choose the moments great. And we go too early. We go when we’re not set. We are impatient.”Why Estadio Azteca is Mexico’s secret weaponJack Lang and Rachael TindeTuchel explained the domino effect that can happen when one player presses too early: a team-mate joins in, nobody says no, and the whole team is left “disjointed”, with “too big distances” between the lines. England need to remember their coordination and their patterns rather than trying to run opponents off the pitch.“We need to pick our moments better: where to press, when to press,” Tuchel said. “And then we need to be more in sync, we need to be more compact, we need to take care of our distances, we need to check our shoulders, and we need to be smart and pick the right moments, when to go into the press.”This is Tuchel’s diagnosis of what went wrong in the first quarter against DR Congo, when England lost their heads and were punished. It is the most important thing to improve against Mexico.But the issue is not only in pressing and defensive organisation. It also comes when England have the ball. They did not score against Ghana, did not find the net until 62 minutes against Panama and not until 75 minutes against DR Congo.Again, the issue is not a lack of purpose, but the opposite. England look so determined to attack in a direct Premier League style, getting the ball out to the wings, then into the box, that they have often lost the sense of what they ought to be doing. If there is no route to goal, there is nothing to be gained from trying to force it.“It’s almost like every attack plays out like a fast attack,” Tuchel said. “We need to worship more the moments and understand that sometimes, the door is closed.“It doesn’t help if you rush into it. Try the other door! Find another way! And worship the ball-possession. Also, to recharge. Otherwise, we just run our batteries down with a huge effort and not so much reward — and this is what we work on. It’s basically my job and we will get better.”England’s Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham in training (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)Tuchel has never spoken quite like this before, which is not to say that his England team has been perfect since this all started at the beginning of 2025 but the emphasis has largely been on more physicality, more speed, more of the Premier League attributes that Tuchel wants to see from his team.And now, on the eve of the biggest games of his tenure, he wants to turn the dial back the other way. “We are a bit rushed in everything we do,” said Tuchel, who often talks like he wants England to blow opponents away. “We lack a bit of patience,” said the man who has prioritised speed in his squad.There is an interesting question about how this squad can adapt to playing a slower pace of game, if that is what Tuchel wants. It is not full of primarily technical players and they do not naturally look to dominate possession. The one centre-back who is best at playing a patient possession game, John Stones, started the first game against Croatia but has only made one brief substitute appearance since. Tuchel’s preference would be to keep Ezri Konsa and Marc Guehi together, although he said Stones is pushing “on a fantastic level” to play.Tuchel, of course, does not agree that he is abandoning his earlier commitments to a brisk style. “We haven’t abandoned at all but we’re working on it,” he said.\There have been moments when England played the way Tuchel wanted — the Costa Rica friendly, the second half against Croatia — but they have been the exceptions, rather than the rule. “Maybe from the tension, maybe from the opponent,” Tuchel said. “We had a very difficult group and very difficult matches to overcome.”The hardest match of all will be on Sunday night in Mexico City and it will never be so important to start slowly and take the sting out of the game.England were a mess in the first quarter against DR Congo and if they play like that from the start in Mexico City, they could get torn apart. That is why the emphasis is on getting to grips with the game in the first 20 minutes, which Tuchel knows will be the hardest physically.“What other teams tell us, who went in there late without acclimatisation, they said the first 15 to 20 minutes is basically the one where you hit a wall,” he said.“But when you go through it, it gets better. That’s exactly why Mexico starts their games like this. They just want to suffocate you. We have a plan. I think we will be fine.”