In Simple present^x, Direct speech^x

>We told Sharon that her comments didn't really relate to the key issues at hand. is correct. I think, the direct speech sentence is in simple present: "Your comments don't relate to the key issues." When the "introduction"part of a sentence in indirect speech is in a past tense form (here:...

To keep up the actual aim of the thread: Another problem that I had while learning English was the backshift of tenses in Indirect Speech. While in German you would always use the subjunctive when you want to express something in Indirect Speech, in English you've to backshift every tense. This...