Tuchel is laughing off questions but injuries are making some England omissions look like oversights

Tuchel has defended his choices but there are concerns over James, Anderson and Rice (Photo by Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA via Getty Images) Eddie Keogh - The FA/Getty Images

Thomas Tuchel let out a laugh. “I cannot engage this after a draw,” he said, shaking his head. “Spain had a draw. Brazil had their draw. Portugal had their draw.”

The question, before England’s final World Cup group game against Panama on Friday, was about whether a frustrating 0-0 draw with Ghana had exposed shortcomings in his squad. Specifically — and this was the part the coach didn’t want to engage with — it was about whether, by leaving players such as Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold out of his squad, he had left himself short when it comes to trying to break down stubborn, deep-lying defences.

“It’s a reflex,” Tuchel said. “Things don’t go well and then the guys on the bench are suddenly the ‘winners’ — or the guys at home are the ‘winners’. That’s not it. The game needs to be played how it’s played. (Against Ghana) it played out to be difficult. They made life very difficult for us. We selected a group from the evidence we had. It cannot be that you’re not selected and suddenly you will (be the answer). This is not how it works.”

It isn’t just a reflex, though. The same questions were asked about Tuchel’s selections the moment he named his squad. The game in Boston brought some of those issues back to the surface — and that was before news emerged of the hamstring problem that will cause Reece James to miss the Panama game and potentially the round of 32, as well as concerns in midfield over the fitness of Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson.

England had 78 per cent of the possession against Ghana, but only four shots on target. Tuchel made five substitutions with attacking intent, replacing Anthony Gordon, Djed Spence, Jude Bellingham, Anderson and Noni Madueke with Bukayo Saka, Nico O’Reilly, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze and Marcus Rashford, but there was still something missing from their play. In wide areas, they lacked quality. Through the congested central areas, there was little imagination and creative spark. It all felt like a reality check after that stirring 4-2 victory over Croatia.

The big question for Tuchel is whether this campaign will be defined by the incisiveness of that opening game against Croatia or by the bluntness that took hold against Ghana six days later.

A World Cup campaign is about peaking at the right time, rather than going full throttle from the start. The last winner to sail through the group stage with three wins out of three was Brazil in 2002. Since then, Italy drew a group game with the United States en route to success in 2006, Spain lost their opening game to Switzerland in 2010, Germany drew with Ghana in 2014, France toiled to a 0-0 draw with Denmark in 2018 and Argentina lost their opening game to Saudi Arabia in 2022.

Equally, though, England’s performances so far have reinforced a certain view of Tuchel’s team. They have become highly proficient at set pieces and fast breaks, strengths that were underlined in their two outstanding performances under the former Chelsea coach, away to Serbia last November and against Croatia last week. But throughout the qualifying campaign, in games against Andorra, Albania and Latvia, as well as against Ghana on Tuesday, they have struggled against low blocks.

Tuchel doesn’t hide from that. “I think it’s just like that,” he said. “It is difficult for club teams who have more training time and ultimately connections, (who) can put more tweaks into their routines. It is normal that it is difficult for us to overcome these types of blocks. I haven’t found the recipe where, ‘They do this, then we do this — and then we are fine’.”

This is where the focus on absent friends becomes inevitable. If patience was lacking against Ghana, then which English midfielder shows more composure in those situations than Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, another omission? Kobbie Mainoo? At a push, perhaps, but then he was kept on the bench throughout the Ghana game. Perhaps injuries will create an opening for him against Panama.

It might, after one poor performance, have seemed like a “reflex” to air frustrations about some of the players left behind. But for many observers that game against Ghana reinforced a longstanding impression of Tuchel’s England: very effective when allowed to play games on their own terms, but too predictable too often when faced with a resilient, well-organised defence.

Isn’t that where the option of using Palmer or Foden, even if only from the bench, had merit? There are justifiable criticisms of their performances last season — for England as well as at club level — but, even during such a difficult campaign at Manchester City, Foden was often summoned from the bench by Pep Guardiola when his team needed more creativity; Palmer excelled in that super-sub role for England at Euro 2024; the absence of Alexander-Arnold seems even more questionable now that Tino Livramento, the second-choice right back, has left the squad with injury and, to no great surprise, James has suffered a reoccurring of his hamstring issues.

Spence is expected to switch to right back against Panama, with O’Reilly returning at left back. But the omission of Alexander-Arnold looks like an oversight. The 27-year-old Real Madrid player has appeared just once under Tuchel, as a second-half substitute in an underwhelming 1-0 win over Andorra. While his approach to full-back play is an acquired taste, James and O’Reilly can hardly be described as orthodox full-backs either.

Tuchel doesn’t want to go over old ground. There was a clear logic behind all of his selections, based on his of the off-field dynamics of the squad as well as a very specific vision of how he wants his team to play. But it was a squad that lacked variety and unpredictability in certain areas. When it came to Tuesday, those five substitutions brought very little difference, creatively and technically, in terms of the questions England were asking.

Tuchel expects his players to face a similar conundrum against Panama — and perhaps, if they do enough to win Group L, against an opponent such as DR Congo or Senegal in the round of 32. “We will face another deep block in another kind of formation,” he said of the Panama game. “We now see a back five. For many moments in the match, a back six, a back seven.”

There followed an in-depth explanation of how he wants his players to address those challenges. “Normally we try to overload parts and areas in the match,” he said. “Try to overload and then accelerate quickly in this moment of overload. There was no overload against Ghana. There will very likely be no overload against Panama.

“We encourage players to take one-against-ones, two-against-two, three-against-three, maybe even four-against-four. (But) even if we bring four players to one side, they will bring four to the side. So even a switch of play will be six-against-six. It is just how it is. It is difficult to accelerate the match against these low blocks.

“You see this in the Champions League. You see it in the Premier League. I saw many matches that looked like this. It needs this one moment of quality and a bit more precision with the crossing. A bit more timing with the crosses, maybe a bit more awareness with the crosses. This is the moment. This is the half-chance that we want to take. Who is arriving with the cross? Are we arriving aggressively enough with the cross? How can we shoot more from outside the box, have a deflection and force this goal in? That is basically the learning.”