Thomas Tuchel has said he hopes England can make their Kansas City base a “home” in the team’s bid to lift the World Cup this summer.
The Three Lions kick off their campaign against Croatia on 17 June in Arlington, Texas, before games against Ghana in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on 23 June and Panama in New Jersey four days later.
Prior to that, Tuchel’s men fly to Florida at the beginning of June for a pre-tournament camp, where they have warm-up matches against New Zealand and Costa Rica.
Flying in and out of Kansas for the group stage alone will mean England will rack up close to 9,000 miles in travel.
The Football Association have been drawn to a smaller, more intimate hotel for the team’s base – something that Tuchel is on board with.
Asked if England planned to stay in Kansas City throughout the tournament rather than move around, Tuchel said: “We’re trying to.
“We’re trying to because, basically that was the choice, to have a home, to have a home, to have a bed that you’re used to sleep in, to have a bed with a good mattress, to have a hotel with privacy … a small hotel.
“Not a 400, 500, 800-bed hotel where we see each other maybe just in the elevators or on the floor between breakfast and meeting-room; the air-conditioning is on and you cannot open the windows.
“There are a lot of these hotels in America.
“We chose a hotel where you can open the window, where it’s an intimate and small place. Once we get used to that place, it makes sense to go back. Maybe the headline is: ‘We try to be as often in Kansas as possible.’”
Despite the congested schedule for what will be the biggest edition of the tournament in its history, Tuchel said it is something that his players prefer.
The England boss said: “I have feedback from the players that they like we start late, that they like that it then becomes condensed so you have no chance to get bored once you go through the tournament.
“Hopefully the longer we will get, the more demanding it will become. And it will become very condensed. There will be a lot of flights. There will be a lot of time at airports. There will be a lot of time together.
“We have to get our chemistry right. This is the most important.”
