Tuchel Praises Barry’s Tactical Shift with Rice at Right-Back

Thomas Tuchel didn’t pretend this one was all his own work. When the game tilted into chaos and England needed a different angle, the decisive tweak came from the man beside him.

Assistant coach Anthony Barry spotted it: move Declan Rice to right-back.

“Anthony Barry had a brilliant idea to put Declan there,” Tuchel admitted, as quoted by The Sun. He wanted Rice’s passing and crossing from a wider station, to turn England’s right flank into a weapon rather than a weakness.

The change did exactly that. With Rice stepping out from the side, England’s deliveries instantly carried more menace. Outswingers, awkward angles, balls that defenders hate. The right became a launchpad rather than a dead end.

Tuchel spelled it out. The switch, he said, was about “his quality from the side, to get more difficult crosses in there, more difficult to defend, more crosses and outswingers.”

The knock-on effect was just as important. Bukayo Saka suddenly had company, not isolation. “Also have a bit more support for Bukayo [Saka] and with Ebs [Eze] we had a bit more of a connection on the right side that helped and opened it up,” Tuchel explained. “So full credit to my assistant.”

The pressure finally told. Rice played a key role in the build-up to the equaliser, stepping into that hybrid space where a full-back becomes a playmaker and the opposition lose their bearings.

But while the tactical board made it look neat, the reality on the pitch was anything but.

For Rice, those closing stages were a blur of sprints, duels and decisions in unfamiliar territory.

“It was probably the hardest 12 minutes of the game having a stint at right back,” the Arsenal midfielder admitted afterwards. The match had broken into a wild, end-to-end shootout. “In games like that it was probably too much of a basketball match at times, back and forth, and we had to take the sting out of it because they have fast wingers.”

He was honest enough to say England made life tougher than it needed to be. “I think we made more hard work of it than we needed to,” he said.

Rice has dipped into the role before, but never looks like a man campaigning for a permanent switch. “I have played there two or three times this season, I know the role, it is probably not my biggest strength but to do anything for the team and the manager.”

That last line tells you why the idea worked. Tactical innovation is useless without players willing to bend for the team.

“12 minutes left I said I would do my best and I think I did well there,” Rice added. Then came the sting in the tail, delivered with a smile. “Let’s see what happens next game but hopefully I don’t have to be at right back.”