England’s lack of quality is Tuchel’s own fault
MIAMI — Thomas Tuchel always felt himself a little bit English. Well, he is one of us now, anglicised by the match trying to fathom how the players he sees at our clubs become mysteriously something other in an England shirt.
Tuchel, the great German technician brought to the post to make us less English in the later stages of major tournaments, ends up just as grateful as his predecessors for the indomitable spirit that binds us.
Tuchel will be loved forever for the honesty and candour of his post-match rant bemoaning the lack of quality and method that left his team so close to disaster against Norway.
But that will not save him should his own mistakes continue to work against the good in his team. The problem he faces in Atlanta is not so much working out how to blunt Lionel Messi and Argentina but how to unlock his own side and maintain his alliance with Jude Bellingham.
Like us, Tuchel is thankful for the talismanic, super human, a player who simply refuses to shrink before the responsibility of leading this team. But there is clearly a tension from less happier days when Tuchel questioned his attitude and singular approach.
“Sometimes it’s not technical or tactical,” Bellingham said, “It’s psychological, how you manage setbacks, how you manage adversity. You’re not going to win every game popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes you have to win dirty.”
This was essentially Bellingham’s retort to Tuchel’s frustration and anger. We were lucky, argued Tuchel. He was right. Tuchel also said he loved his team, but that context was lost in the immediacy of post-match processing.
“Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those conditions against Erling Haaland, [Martin] Odegard, [Antonio] Nusa and [Alexander] Sorloth. That’s not an easy team to play against,” Bellingham said.
Maybe Norway was the contest that laid tensions bare, that stripped camp England of all pretension. The blade of truth is out, cutting through the rhetoric. The requirement now is an honest appraisal of how we progressed to a fifth World Cup semi-final without remotely hitting a peak.
And part of that is to address his own contribution to the diminution of rhythm and pattern on the pitch. He might start with midfield. The part of the pitch served with distinction by Bellingham malfunctions around him partly because of Tuchel’s bizarre reluctance to play Kobbie Mainoo and the unavailability of Jordan Henderson, whose selection always looked a punt too far.
With England falling into disarray sans Declan Rice, it was almost an insult to Mainoo to deploy Reece James at the base of the scrum instead of him. And to have Henderson bouncing around in full kit with a pot on his arm was cultish nonsense.
Reheating Tuchel’s selection foibles will not bring Cole Palmer, Phil Foden or Jarrod Bowen back for Wednesday. If there is a lack of quality in his squad it is of Tuchel’s own making. Having chosen Mainoo his continued exclusion feels unreasonable.
Tuchel’s frustration is our frustration. How to get 11 players to be the sum of their parts, to impact matches like they do for their clubs. Norway stood off in the first half but England didn’t pick up on the deference shown them and were too risk-averse. Tuchel demands dynamism and gets diffidence.
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Argentina are essentially peopled by players from the Premier League’s top six plus Messi. There ought to be no surprises and, to quote Franklin D. Roosevelt, little to fear accept fear itself.
The post-match mantra is always the same. We have to improve, we can get better. And before the next the optimism is back. He wants front foot aggression, to attack with skill and confidence. Be the best England we can be.
The tournament is in his hands as much as the players’. To live the dream in Atlanta and beyond England need a better game from their manager too.
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