Thomas Tuchel hailed Jude Bellingham after another scintillating night in an England shirt, believing that the Real Madrid superstar has gone up another level in recent months.
Bellingham scored one and recorded a hat-trick of assists during the demolition of Croatia, with team-mates queuing up to lavish praise on the vice-captain.
The 23-year-old became the first midfielder to record four goal involvements in an England match for since David Platt scored four against San Marino in 1993.
Roy Keane claimed that Bellingham 'can go on to become one of the greatest players of all time' and Tuchel has seen more improvement.
'At the moment it seems like [he has gone up a level] and you always need to,' Tuchel said. 'The level you showed last week is never enough, it's just the nature of football.
'It's like you can never stand still, it's like walking against an electric escalator. You have to develop and push for the next level. That is always necessary.'
Jude Bellingham impresses again as he continues to break records in an England shirt
Bellingham created an astonishing eight chances and laid on for Bukayo Saka's first goal seconds before half time.
'He was amazing tonight,' Saka said. 'He deserved [England] player of the year and he probably deserves man of the match tonight as well. He was special. I'm happy to play with him and happy to have him in the England team.'
Tuchel admitted that the atmosphere in a stadium populated by 6,000 schoolchildren and 100 away fans was 'strange' but couldn't hide his excitement at the way in which England dismantled Croatia.
And he believes nights like this are a way of erasing the pain of July's World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina.
'The speed and technical quality, the hunger off the ball, was the very highest level,' the German said. 'I'm very happy about the attitude. We were never arrogant, always humble. It was a complete 90-minute performance.
'If you feel pain you have to play with the pain. The same with disappointment. It was not easy at the beginning of the camp. We'll always have a scar, feel pain, but this is the way to move forward. We've played in the same manner all three matches.'
Source: Sport
