England have emerged from the June international break with problems – both familiar and new – threatening to overwhelm them.
A scruffy win against Andorra – the 173rd ranked team in the world – at the weekend has now been followed by a comprehensive home defeat to Senegal in Nottingham.
With the World Cup only a year away, Football Editor Ian Ladyman looks at the obstacles standing between Thomas Tuchel and any hope of success in North America next summer
THE MISSING LINKS
England have some elite level footballers but they are all playing in the same positions.
Away from the potential of players such as Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer, England don’t have reliable and oven ready full-backs and are trying new partnerships at centre half, for example.
The Gareth Southgate era was largely progressive but at its heart was a John Stones/Harry Maguire axis that provided England with a solid base.
In the Euros of 2021, for example, England didn’t concede a goal until the semi-final and only two all tournament.
Thomas Tuchel still hopes to have Stones back but thinks he may be able to play in midfield. In terms of Maguire, Tuchel is unsure about his value as a squad man if he is not a regular starter.
Newcastle’s Dan Burn will be on the plane to America if he stays fit but as much as a late attacking weapon as anything. On Tuesday against Senegal, England’s defensive issues were clear.
JUDE AND DEC
They are two of England’s truly gifted players but where is the synergy between them on the field?
These are two men who should be dragging England forwards but instead they hardly spent any time together on the pitch over the last two games.
In fact, they shared just ten minutes of football towards the end of the Andorra game in Barcelona on Saturday.
Tuchel said at the weekend that Rice had arrived to camp ‘out of rhythm’ and the Arsenal player was anonymous against Senegal’s dextrous and athletic midfield in Nottingham. Indeed some hard truths are emerging about both these players.
Rice just isn’t good enough at number six to play the role on his own while Bellingham’s temperament and tactical discipline need serious work.
Tuchel knows both these truths but is aware of the sensitivity around the latter issue in particular. If there was a World Cup for arm waving, Jude would be a gold medallist.
THE HARRY KANE PROBLEM
So here we are again. Back at the start. As Kane continues to wrack up poachers’ goals with stunning regularity – the England captain has scored in each of Tuchel’s four games – his country’s reliance on a player who does not look mobile enough against the very best opposition continues to haunt the national team.
There is no reliable understudy. It’s just a fact. Ollie Watkins – injured for these two games – does not have the numbers of an elite striker while Ivan Toney’s dalliance with Tuchel’s squad may well be over already.
The England coach refused to talk about him on Saturday night in Andorra and then refused to use him until England were absolutely desperate late on against Senegal.
Seeing Kane come off only for Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze to be asked to play up front on Tuesday night was extraordinary.
SQUARE PEGS AND ROUND HOLES
Tuchel is a manager who has the courage of his convictions and wears the stresses and strains of management pretty lightly.
That’s perhaps just as well given what’s ahead of him. Even so, he made some strange calls over the last few days.
The Andorra game saw a right-back – Reece James – at left-back and a central midfielder – Curtis Jones - over on the other side of the defensive line.
Jones was asked by Tuchel to play that defensive/midfield hybrid role made fashionable by Trent Alexander-Arnold – who was on the bench. That was, frankly, quite staggering.
Against Senegal, meanwhile, a winger - Eze - was up front with a striker – Toney – on the bench. Conor Gallagher, meanwhile, was left in the stands against Andorra yet made the starting eleven at the City Ground.
That game seemed set up for local hero Morgan Gibbs-White but he began the evening among the substitutes.
Is Tuchel in danger of making this whole thing too complicated? Pick your best players, Thomas, and put them in their best positions.
THE MAN CITY CONDUNDRUM
John Stones, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker. What has happened to them? It is a question that is known to trouble the England manager.
Grealish looked a player ready to roll under Lee Carsley against the Republic of Ireland in the first game of the Nations League last autumn but is now up for sale at his club. ‘I love Jack,’ said Tuchel last week but he will not pick players short on club minutes.
Foden, meanwhile, is supposed to be part of England’s golden trio of attacking players along with Bellingham and Cole Palmer. Carsley tried to get all three in a team against Greece last year – England lost – and now Tuchel can’t even find room for the City man in his squad.
Tuchel is concerned about Foden and doesn’t know when he will see him again. If he does, he would like to see how he goes as a number nine.
More widely, the England coach has noticed a malaise about the City squad that nobody can really expect to be improved by three or four weeks away at the Club World Cup.
THE OPPOSITION
Tuchel is convinced that England will automatically raise their levels when the games grow harder and more significant. Well, he has to cling to something doesn’t he?
The problem with all that is that the toughest team he will face between now and the World Cup is Serbia, yet to be tackled home and away in qualifying.
Those games – especially the away fixture in September – will not be easy and if England don’t improve quickly the Serbs may yet contest top spot in the group.
But apart from that, England will face Andorra, Latvia and Albania in competitive games before the end of the calendar year as well as Wales in an October friendly.
The international break next March is likely to be filled by another two friendlies so Tuchel knows that his players will be relying on muscle memory when it comes to the serious stuff in America a year from now. It really is not ideal.