England boss Thomas Tuchel insists that having Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke fighting for one position is a “good” problem to have.
The Three Lions produced an excellent first 20 minutes to blow Wales away in a friendly match at Wembley Stadium on Thursday evening.
England trio Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Saka scored the goals with the latter bagging the best of the bunch as he cut in from the right to fire a wonderful shot into the top corner on 20 minutes.
Saka’s Arsenal team-mate Madueke was the star over the last international break for England as he impressed in World Cup qualifier wins over Serbia and Andorra.
When asked about Saka and Madueke giving him a selection “problem” ahead of the World Cup, Tuchel responded: “Good. That’s what we want.
“Noni is unfortunately injured. Noni was excellent in the last camp, he was electric.
READ: England player ratings v Wales: Saka stars; Rogers, Gordon and Spence among big winners
“He then continued to play for his club while Bukayo was out for Arsenal in the same manner.
“We were very, very sad that he’s now injured, but Saka stepped up. He had to step up also.”
Saka missed the first few games of the season for Arsenal but Tuchel thinks the winger is now closing in on a return to his best form.
Tuchel said: “It was like his first camp where he comes without injury and it’s necessary. Like I said, the competition is on.
“Bukayo had a good performance like everyone else and showed what he’s capable of.
“I still feel there is a step to go for Bukayo to regain his rhythm, naturally after one or two injuries now, to regain his rhythm and his stamina.
“Then, he is a very important player for us and he will fight for his place because that’s what he does.
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“He’s played for many, many years for Arsenal at the highest level and this is what we demand of him for England. He’s ready to go and that’s what he showed today.”
After criticising the “silent” England support against Wales in his post-match interview, Tuchel added: “I heard the support from the Welsh fans but it had no affect on us,” he continued.
“We played with a lot of effort, we played very smart and we only had one-and-a-half days to prepare for a very complicated opponent.
“They are very well drilled, very well coached, even in the deep build-up, so we still wanted to play with high pressing, we wanted to have a lot of ball wins and we had it.
“Full credit to the team because they’ve bought into the ideas over the last one-and-a-half days and to the changes we had to make because until now, we only played against deep blocks so this was the first time that we were pressed high.
“Our deep build-up was good, our middle block was good, our defending, our high pressing was excellent in the first half and it takes a lot of effort to shut Wales down like this.”
Tuchel continued: “We saw what they did against Canada, we saw what they did in Belgium and they were just excellent and they had much more ball possession than the opponent.
“It takes a lot of selfless work, a lot of teamwork and we did it again. We were very quickly 3-0 up and we could’ve scored more in the first half.”
