England’s dour draw with Ghana will quickly be forgotten if they can produce the swashbuckling attacking football they displayed against Croatia in last week’s World Cup group opener.
There were enough worrying signs in that stalemate in Boston, however, to give Thomas Tuchel and his team cause to work overtime back at their training base in Kansas City, Missouri.
France have already hit top gear, the Netherlands can’t stop scoring while Lionel Messi continues to defy Father Time. England cannot afford for the Ghana clash to be anything other than an aberration. Otherwise, another early exit on the world stage could be upon us.
Saturday’s Panama clash is a chance to reset and iron out the most pertinent deficiencies.
Offer Kane some support from wide
One facet to Harry Kane’s game that is often forgotten – the other-worldly goal return grabs all the attention – is what an astounding playmaker he is.
Kane will often drop deep for Bayern Munich and spray the most aesthetically pleasing long-range pass into Michael Olise to get another attack rolling. His gravity-defying passing radar, however, needs runners.
What England failed to do against Ghana, where they excelled when putting Croatia to the sword, was to give Kane an outlet on either flank. Noni Madueke seems to have run out of ideas, while Anthony Gordon will have worried his new Catalonian employers after his displays in the US so far.
With Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford described as “desperate” to start, a renewed energy on the wing, from one player reborn in Barcelona and another one of the few truly world-class players in the England setup, Kane will start to feel in a similar safe place where he was able to take his game to even greater heights this term.
Decide if Bellingham is a true No 10, or give someone who is a chance
Jude Bellingham is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. He is capable of being England’s Roy of the Rovers and Roy Cropper in equal measure.
Nobody else in the squad possesses the X-Factor Bellingham does. It is on Tuchel to get him into positions for him to produce those jaw-dropping moments from No 10. If he is not willing to get Bellingham running off Kane, England are overloaded with alternatives.
Morgan Rogers offers a different kind of option, one adept at pulling wider and cutting inside. Eberechi Eze can also pull an arrowing strike out of nowhere, if given the opportunity.
Bellingham has more dynamism and intelligent positioning. If Tuchel isn’t willing to allow the Real Madrid star to play to such strengths, Rogers or Eze could offer the threat of the unknown. At this stage of the competition, heroes can come in all shapes and sizes.
The John Stones conundrum
Tuchel chairs the John Stones Appreciation Society. Given the veteran defender, who is currently without a club, has 11 Premier League starts across the past two season, no other manager would start such an out-of-practice centre-back on the biggest stage of all.
Tuchel feels Stones carries the ball out from the back like no other and offers tournament knowhow the rest of his backline do not possess. His lack of game time for Manchester City, as injuries ravaged the last few years, has not deterred the German from turning to his favourite English libero.
It was decided pre-tournament that it was Stones who Tuchel would build his defence around, but England looked porous in the extreme in that thrilling Croatia success, with the 32-year-old often caught cold. It turns out the Croatia vulnerability was not just down to Stones, with Marc Guehi and Ezra Konsa troubled more than we were expecting them to be against Ghana.
When the knockout stages get underway, the goals often dry up with so much at stake, putting emphasis on shoring up the backline as much as possible. Stones is England’s best defender. When he is fully fit and firing on all cylinders.
His final appearance for City left much to be desired, while his England return this summer has not resulted in regaining the peak performance he enjoyed at his club. The question Tuchel must answer is whether he risks Stones in the latter stages of a tournament.
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