There will not be that much debate over who starts in Dallas. Maybe there is a debate to be had around the left winger and to a lesser extent, full back, but broadly speaking, it is picking itself.
Thomas Tuchel can probably name eight with absolute certainty. Many of them sat up in a box at Wembley on Friday, Harry Kane later striding out into the night with the aura of a striker who pleads with you not to worry, he will immediately fix the attacking ills at play during the draw with Uruguay.
Barring injury, it is Kane, it is Declan Rice, it is Elliot Anderson, it is Bukayo Saka, it is Marc Guehi. John Stones, Jordan Pickford, Jude Bellingham. Probably Nico O’Reilly and definitely Reece James if he proves his fitness.
None of that is the issue for Tuchel. The issue for Tuchel is in the searing heat of the United States – and more notably, a potential last-16 tie with Mexico at the Azteca and its altitude – who is changing the course of games from the bench?
With one friendly to go until the World Cup squad announcement, nobody is quite sure. Phil Foden and Cole Palmer have 20 goals between them this season from 66 games. Pitted against each other for the third No 10 spot, both appear short on confidence.
Tuchel has used the stick with Palmer in recent days, the carrot with Foden. Palmer’s influence on the Uruguay game, particularly his set piece deliveries, gave him an edge but there were moments when his natural instinct was similar to Foden – a burst past a marker before heading backwards when the pitch seemed to open up.
England have little that can help them off the bench right now – Phil Foden (left) and Cole Palmer (right) are both short on confidence
These are tricky moods for an international manager to fix in such a short period of time. He has talked about how all of these players are big stars for their clubs and how they need to lean into disappointment at England selections for the betterment of the squad.
Effectively to leave the ego at the door. But Tuchel’s job here is bordering on the opposite, to lift them up from scatty club campaigns. Foden has not started six of the last eight Premier League games for Manchester City and while Tuchel has praised his attitude in training, especially during Thursday’s defensive drills, to snap out of that malaise is no mean feat.
Whether he has enough time – especially given the ankle injury suffered at the studs of Uruguay’s Ronald Araujo – is uncertain. The same can be said for Noni Madueke, whose year has yielded only seven goals and who left Wembley in a knee brace.
The one man who truly benefited from Friday was Eberechi Eze, with a spot for Morgan Rogers also seemingly under no threat either.
Something needs to click with a few of them, Foden a prime example when drifting in from the right and refusing to let fly with that angular strike into the far corner that we’ve seen so many times and on the biggest stages. Tuchel knows that is there somewhere, somewhere deep inside, and is giving him every chance to locate it.
Time is running out though and England are not going to North America with the assurance that an Ollie Watkins lies in wait ready to turn a semi-final on its head from the bench. Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dominic Solanke did much to further their cause, the latter potentially glancing wide a spot on the place from Palmer’s wicked cross.
That throws up two prospects: either bringing Watkins (similarly to Foden and Palmer, on 10 goals for the year) in from the cold despite patchy form or persevere with Foden as a false nine, a role he has previously starred in for Pep Guardiola. That is how Kane plays so may represent the most logical like-for-like swap.
There is nobody banging down the door to reveal themselves as this summer’s Watkins and Tuchel is going to have to gamble on a couple of them – unless somebody barges through against Japan on Tuesday. It is the biggest call of his tenure, because whoever is chosen to act as those fresh legs in the stifling conditions once the knockouts hit will have England’s fate at their feet.
