Thomas Tuchel’s England are starting to gain momentum with next summer’s World Cup in sight.
Thursday night’s 3-0 win against Wales at Wembley was his team’s third in a row without conceding a goal.
Ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier in Riga against Latvia, Football Editor Ian Ladyman assesses the progress being made by England ahead of one of the biggest tournaments of their lives…
CONTINUITY MAY JUST PAY OFF
In the past England managers have used friendlies such as this one to experiment and to give fringe players game time in a bid to keep them involved and engaged. More often than not, it has left our national team lining up at tournaments having simply not played together enough as a unit. Tuchel seems intent on making sure that doesn’t happen.
Thursday night, for example, could have been viewed as an opportunity to give both the Hendersons a go – Dean in goal and Jordan in the centre of midfield. But Tuchel clearly wants Jordan Pickford to develop a deeper understanding with his back four and Declan Rice to bed in as one half of his first choice double pivot with Elliot Anderson.
Tuchel said when he got the job a year ago that time was of the essence and he is intent on making full use of it. With four clear days between now and Tuesday’s game against a team ranked 137 in the world, I would not expect Tuchel to change very much in terms of selection.
Harry Kane will play as long as he returns to training as expected on Saturday while it may be a stretch to expect John Stones to play back-to-back games, so there may be a start for Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Tuchel clearly wants Jordan Pickford to develop a deeper understanding with his back four and Declan Rice to bed in as one half of his first choice double pivot with Elliot Anderson
CROWD TROUBLE
Only in England can a manager watch his team score three goals in 20 minutes against a historic rival and then walk in front of the TV cameras and criticise the crowd. But who is to say Tuchel was wrong to ask for more from the Wembley fanbase?
Those of us who have been watching England for a while have long said that Wembley is often far too quiet and far too corporate for all but the very big England games. There is a sense of entitlement when England play at the national stadium. The fans expect a victory and they expect goals and when the levels of the team drop so does the atmosphere and the paper aeroplanes start to drift down from the upper tier.
The truth of it is that Wembley is paid off now. There is no outstanding debt and therefore no particular need to play every England game in Wembley. What about Manchester? What about Newcastle? What about Leeds? Get England out on the road. Now even the England manager agrees with us. Listen to him.
Wembley is often too quiet and too corporate for all but the biggest England games, with the crowd expecting victory and goals – as Wales fans (pictured) showed them up on Thursday
CHANGE THE JUDE STORY
So much of what we have heard and said about Jude Bellingham in the last six months has been negative and it’s true that he has brought much of that on his self. At Wembley on Thursday night we saw an England number ten playing the position with discipline and energy and also with imagination.
Morgan Rogers was excellent and it was a joy to see him score his first international goal. He should have scored a second later on, hitting the bar when he will have expected to do better. But the World Cup will be won and lost next summer by a squad rather than a team. As such we should be glad that we now have two contenders for such an important role in the team – and even a third if we consider the different skill set offered by Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.
It really is up to Bellingham from this point on. If he really is an England leader of the future – even a captain in waiting – then Bellingham will take a look at what has happened over recent weeks and months and realise that he has to adapt and has to change. We should all hope that he will have an enormous role to play between now and the end of next summer. It really is up to him now.
If he is an England leader of the future – even a captain in waiting – then Bellingham will take a look at what has happened over recent weeks and months and realise that he has to adapt
TUCHEL HAS THE ATTITUDE
Part of the battle when it comes to being England manager is having big enough presence, broad enough shoulders and unshakable self-belief. Without all of that in your tool kit, you will sink. Gareth Southgate had it. Strange as it sounds, Sven-Goran Eriksson had it. Roy Hodgson, on the other hand, sadly did not. Tuchel scores highly here, so far at least.
We are not in the heat (literally and metaphorically) of World Cup battle yet and that will always be the real test of a national coach. But so far the German is wearing the stresses and strains of the job lightly and it bodes well.
For example when the Daily Mail suggested to him on Wednesday that he had set himself up to be criticised if omitting Bellingham and the others led to defeat against Wales, he just sat back and smiled. ‘Yes but you media always do this,’ he said. ‘So what’s the difference? It will always be the same. You will always ask: “Is this the right team?” no matter who I pick and if we lose you will say it’s the wrong team. It’s fair enough.’
With all this in mind, Tuchel’s assertion that England should go to the World Cup with an underdog mentality was one of the smartest things I have heard a national coach say for a long time. Time and again England teams have travelled to summer tournaments burdened by overdue pressure and expectation. If Tuchel – a foreigner – can change that narrative then it will be an achievement on its own.
So far Thomas Tuchel is wearing the stresses and strains of the job lightly and it bodes well
WHO ARE THE FINISHERS?
It would be quite wrong to discount the nature of last night’s opposition. Wales have done marvellously well under Craig Bellamy so far but this was not the team we expected. They defended like schoolboys for 20 minutes and by the time they woke up and realised there was a game on, it was over.
Tuchel wants his team to score from corners and set pieces. He thinks they may be pivotal in deciding tight games in America. Here, Wales gave England the opportunity to bolster that record. But what happened here when Wales woke up and the game got a little harder for Tuchel’s team in the second half? Where were the players to come on and lift the occasion and reinject the tempo? Marcus Rashford? Morgan Gibbs-White? Ruben Loftus-Cheek? In all honesty, it didn’t really happen.
It makes one wonder what would have happened had we had Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham and Jack Grealish on the bench, eh? Meanwhile the Kane conundrum rolls on. Who is the skipper’s natural replacement when he is injured or – in America’s brutal heat – simply needing a rest next summer? So far I don’t see one.
