Thomas Tuchel is trying to very quickly build an England team to beat the very best but can for now only test it out against… not the very best.
These are interesting times for England. They are at the start of a very significant yet very brief journey under Thomas Tuchel that may be many things but cannot be accused of overcomplication.
Tuchel’s goal in his time with England is starkly simple in theory but formidably difficult in execution.
And after his first international break we’re not really any closer to learning what his chances of success might be. This is probably a good thing, because in truth the only way we could’ve learned much at all from home games against Albania and Latvia would have been in the negatives column.
England weren’t perfect in either Wembley game, but they’ve done the necessary in each and there are already clear elements of what Tuchel’s England might look like if they can reach their final form with sufficient alacrity to peak in North America next summer.
If it works, the glib summary will be that Gareth Southgate got England behaving like an elite club side while Tuchel got them playing like one.
The paucity of opposition is in some ways counter-productive for Tuchel. He is not, by definition, trying to build an England team that can beat your Albanias and your Latvias. England have historically been very reliable at that. Albeit not specifically in the case of Latvia who they had somehow never met before.
Tuchel is trying to turn England from a team that is enormously reliable (for better) against everyone below the elite but equally reliable (for worse) against the best. And these games have to be viewed in that way.
England’s shape here against Latvia saw Myles Lewis-Skelly operating more as an auxiliary No. 6 than either a full-back or wing-back whenever England were in possession, which was most of the time.
This allowed Jude Bellingham to push forward into what was effectively a front five that nevertheless never quite managed to equal the sum of its considerable parts.
Bellingham was England’s most compelling driving force on Friday evening but was frustrated and frustrating here, fortunate in the end to leave the pitch on Tuchel’s terms rather than the referees after a classic and wholly unnecessary if-he-hadn’t-already-have-been-booked-he’d-have-been-booked-for-that challenge in the second half.
There is no doubting his quality but the dread sense remains of an inevitability about the red card at a crucial major-tournament moment in his England future.
Awkwardly for Bellingham, England looked at their sharpest here the instant he was withdrawn, adding smartly worked second and third goals.
Bellingham’s replacement Phil Foden may not, as Sam Matterface put it on commentary ‘necessarily have played a key part’ in that goal given that he wasn’t remotely involved as Morgan Rogers played in Declan Rice to slide the ball across for Harry Kane’s 71st (or not) England goal, but Lee Dixon’s co-commentary question about whether Rice would even have made that excellent line-breaking forward run had Bellingham been on the pitch felt like a valid one.
Bellingham’s presence or absence was likely a red herring, with Latvia tiring after 70 largely stoic minutes of effort to keep England quiet a more telling factor than anything England’s departed or introduced players may or may not have done, but Eberechi Eze’s quick feet and quicker thinking were absolutely key to the third goal.
While resisting the Lee Carsley urge to just chuck all the most vibes-based players available on to the pitch at the same time and see what happens, it’s clear that players like Eze, players like Rogers and most obviously yes, players like Bellingham, are going to be key to Tuchel’s England.
He is looking for points of difference. They may not necessarily be needed for Wembley games of the sort England have always won and always will, but for the far bigger tests that lie ahead. On that note Eze’s late cameo was a huge positive, while Marcus Rashford also emerges as a positive from this camp.
Lewis-Skelly might be the biggest plus of the lot tonight, though. Tuchel clearly doesn’t agree with Enzo Maresca about Reece James’ best role given it was Lewis-Skelly rather than his more experienced colleague tasked with the inverted full-back/midfield hybrid role here, and it was one Lewis-Skelly performed impressively.
Only time will tell how adroitly he is able to manage flitting from a midfield role in possession to a defensive one out of it in comes where the counter is closer to 50-50, but what isn’t in doubt is whether he possesses the requisite quality, composure or vision on the ball to perform the midfield half of those duties.
As for James, despite his more traditional role (albeit in non-traditional shirt number), he produces the evening’s standout moment with a genuinely perfect free-kick that, unlike most initially perfect-looking free-kicks, survived contact with action replays. It was high and wide for the vast majority of its journey before dipping and curving just the desired amount at the very last.
A wonderful goal followed by a classy non-celebration for a player who, of course, spent six months on loan at Latvia in his younger days. We assume. Otherwise it was a bit weird.
Nothing else weird, though, about a thoroughly routine England win in a qualifying group that already looks like it will only require more of the same. Then the real work begins.
