Fast, devastatingly clinical and easy on the eye. This was a great night for Japanese football at Wembley. As for Thomas Tuchel’s England, this was the 90 minutes from hell.
Most damning of all is that they largely brought it on themselves as Thomas Tuchel’s decision to tear up his best laid plans in the name of experimentation and sophistication blew up in his face.
In the absence of injured captain and centre-forward Harry Kane, a new forward line was born. But who was playing where? At times it was hard to tell.
The result was that this was as bad as England have been under the man tasked with bringing the World Cup home. Slow, unimaginative and predictable, England were a dream to play against at Wembley. Only when second half substitutions gave them impetus and a set piece threat as Japan tired did England pose a threat.
By that time, Japan could have been three goals up. England have now played three teams from the FIFA top 20 on Tuchel’s watch and have lost twice and drawn once. It’s a worry…
Jarrod Bowen, Jordan Pickford and Cole Palmer despair after the 1-0 home defeat by Japan
A CHANGE THAT ENGLAND DIDN’T NEED
Just as England finalise preparations for America, Tuchel decided to throw a formation change on his team and it’s hard to see why. Tuchel took England through qualifying with a 100 per cent record on the back of a 4-2-3-1 system and it was alarming to see him ditch it just because Harry Kane wasn’t fit.
The suggestion was that Phil Foden would play as a false nine but in reality this was 4-2-4 and for too long it was a bit of a mess and rather reminiscent of the night in late 2024 when stand-in boss Lee Carsley picked Foden, Cole Palmer and Jude Bellingham in the same team and watched Greece roll all over them at Wembley.
Kane will not play every minute at the World Cup – he simply can’t – so Tuchel is going to have to choose a replacement and stick with it. If he really doesn’t fancy a classic No 9 such as Ollie Watkins then surely it has to be a runner such as Anthony Gordon or Marcus Rashford.
For too long on Tuesday night, this just didn’t work. Rogers is England’s best No 10 on current form but here he didn’t play there. Why not? When Tuchel made his changes on the hour, it was an admission of his own folly and England were the better for it.
Indeed this could be the last we see of Foden in an England shirt for quite a while. That feels deeply sad but at the moment he just isn’t worth a place.
LOOSE AND CARELESS WON’T WIN A WORLD CUP
In some ways, this was a dress rehearsal for how a World Cup in an oppressive American summer will be played. The football will be pedestrian at times. There will be absence of cut and thrust and rhythm. The teams that can accelerate play when necessary and make fewest mistakes will be the ones to benefit. It will be a tournament of ‘big moments’ as Tuchel keeps saying.
Here in front of their 7,000 ecstatic fans, Japan showed England’s how it’s done. They spent much of the evening without the ball – England had 70 per cent of the play – but moved quickly through the gears when they did have it. They attacked with speed and precision and could have been two or three goals up by the time England rallied and came close with two set pieces late on.
Japan also didn’t make the mistakes that England did. Cole Palmer – England’s best forward player on the night – lost the ball for the goal and then Kobbie Mainoo did likewise as Japan pounced to hit the bar just before half-time.
Much of that in the summer and England will be home in time to watch Wimbledon.
Cole Palmer gave the ball away in the first half which led to Japan’s matchwinning goal
HENDERSON AND BURN NEEDS A RETHINK
Tuchel has placed faith in these players as much for what they bring the squad off the field as what they can provide during a game. They will in all likelihood go to America but can we really afford that luxury at a tournament where squad depth will be crucial?
Viable alternatives have now appeared and they both play for Manchester United. Mainoo did enough over two games to show that he is not out of place in the centre of an international midfield while Harry Maguire simply has to go to the tournament.
With both players facing just domestic seven games between now and the end of the season, there should be no issues with fatigue and they are simply better players than Henderson and Burn. It really should be that simple.
Henderson – who turns 36 the day England face Croatia in Dallas – was not available for this one and wouldn’t have played after a turgid showing against Uruguay on Friday.
Burn, meanwhile, was give just nine minutes over two games when Tuchel threw him and Maguire on in a desperate search of an aerial presence at attacking set pieces on Tuesday night.
Both came close as it happens but only one of them was cheered to the rafters by the Wembley crowd and had his name sung as he entered the fray.
It wasn’t Dan Burn.
Harry Maguire (centre) should go to the World Cup ahead of Dan Burn – despite the latter being a Thomas Tuchel favourite
A SURPRISE CANDIDATE AT THE BACK
There is no escaping the fact that taking Ben White to a World Cup is a risk. It will be a long trip – at least we hope so – and he is not believed to be the best tourist. But having been called up as a late replacement for this squad, he has had two progressive nights and Tuchel will certainly have noticed.
Booed here again by the idiot section of the Wembley crowd – it was particularly loud when he was taken off on the hour – that wouldn’t happen if he were to play in America. The travelling England supporters are a different breed.
If we presume that Reece James is Tuchel’s first choice right-back then his other options are Tino Livramento, Jarell Quansah, Djed Spence and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Livramento will be in the squad while Alexander-Arnold should be but won’t be. So that leaves White in a fight with the other two and – given that he can also play centre half – we can continue the analogy and say he has a puncher’s chance at least after this camp.
Ben White has bolstered his chances of a surprise call-up to England’s World Cup squad
NO NEED TO PANIC
England managers must cope with the extremes of reaction that follow games. Tuchel – a fan of daily meditation – is good at that bit and it’s just as well.
This hasn’t been a progressive camp but England have been here before and survived. Their final game before the last World Cup was a thoroughly chaotic 3-3 draw here with Germany. Gareth Southgate’s team looked like they would never win again that night and indeed hadn’t done so for six games.
Yet England went to Qatar two months later and scored six in their opening game. So Tuchel will move forwards in the knowledge that the core of his team and his squad remains the same.
Barring injuries, his team for Croatia in Dallas on June 17 will be pretty close to: Pickford; James, Konsa, Guehi, O’Reilly; Rice, Anderson; Saka, Rogers, Gordon/Rashford; Kane.
