This was a training game - England and Tuchel now need to get serious
England head coach Thomas Tuchel’s pre-World Cup experimentation must surely end here and now.
Tuchel’s long examination of the options open to him continued on Saturday with the sight of two separate teams, one for each half, tackling a low-key friendly against New Zealand in Tampa’s searing heat.
The clock is ticking down to England’s opening tournament game against Croatia in Dallas on Wednesday, 17 June.
With the Tampa game out of the way, Tuchel should be ready to reveal more of what he hopes will be his winning hand.
It was perfectly understandable that Tuchel wanted to give England’s squad time to get minutes in the bank in testing, strength-sapping conditions.
What it meant was that the 1-0 win - Harry Kane the goalscorer again - came from effectively a glorified training session carried out under the guise of international football.
This was the first time since June 2004, when England played Iceland before leaving for the European Championship in Portugal, that they have played 22 different players in a match.
England play their final friendly before the World Cup starts when they face Costa Rica in Orlando on Wednesday – and that is when Tuchel has the chance to wheel out the big guns.
Tuchel’s recent selections have not been anywhere near what could be considered a World Cup starting line-up. In Tampa he was without key Arsenal figures and certain starters Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, afforded a rest after their Premier League title-winning exertions and the Champions League final loss to Paris St-Germain.
“To put it in context, a lot of our players last played together in November,” said Tuchel. “That’s half a year ago. We had four training sessions together, then mixed the team up completely.”
Tuchel has to take his own share of responsibility for this situation, having made some experimental selections leading up to these final preparations, including in the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan at Wembley in March.
Manchester City’s Phil Foden played up front against Japan. In the Uruguay game, Tuchel fielded Foden, Everton’s James Garner and Spurs striker Dominic Solanke. None of those made his World Cup squad.
Ivan Toney came on for the second half in Tampa after spending a year in the England wilderness, following a three-minute appearance in the friendly defeat against Senegal at the City Ground, Nottingham.
This, in effect, makes it even more important that Tuchel puts a line-up on the pitch against Costa Rica that is as close as possible to the one that will face Croatia. It will be an opportunity to find rhythm and momentum and build combinations before that tournament opener.
Tuchel did, at least, report no injuries from this first warm-up game, while he added: “The better the opponent gets, the better we will get.”
Kane’s goal came just before half-time, which heralded the mass changes, but Tuchel said: “I was happier with the second half. I thought we had more hunger and more desire. We played better but did not score.”
“We didn’t play according to our plan in the first half. It slowed the game down, but it was better in the second half.”
“We will acclimatise to the humidity and the sun while we are here. Tomorrow will be recovery day, then we have two days to prepare for Costa Rica. Then a chunk of players will get more minutes. The Arsenal players are in now, which is good because it gives us energy and quality, and then we have another one and a half days off.”
“Then we go to Kansas and prepare for Croatia.”
For all the permutations Tuchel went through against New Zealand, one indisputable truth remains for England: Kane is the key to all their World Cup aspirations.
He headed the winner seconds before the break, his 79th international goal in 113 appearances.
Once again, the captain made the decisive contribution and England are simply not the same side without him.
In the Costa Rica friendly, Tuchel has the opportunity to shape partnerships in central defence, where John Stones was given 45 minutes alongside Marc Guehi against New Zealand. That followed an injury-troubled final season at Manchester City for Stones.
Perhaps Tuchel will also give the clearest hint on who will take the much-debated number 10 role.
It is a straight fight between Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers and Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham. Rogers was first pick in this friendly, but nothing can be read into this as Bellingham took the captain’s armband when he came out for the second half.
Regarding the line-ups, Tuchel said after the game there were “no hidden messages”.
Ollie Watkins and Toney, who played a half each, did nothing to suggest they will be anything other than understudies to Kane, as expected, while Tuchel will have been pleased Chelsea’s Reece James got through 45 minutes at right-back, where he is almost certain to be a World Cup starter.
Not too much of true significance could be gleaned, but Tuchel would have hoped for something a little more convincing against a side ranked 85th in the world, with England creating little, although there was a very lively second-half appearance from Liverpool’s 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha.
He is with England in the United States but not as part of the World Cup squad. In becoming the fifth youngest player to represent the Three Lions, he certainly gave Tuchel some interesting food for thought should there be injuries before the tournament starts.
Former England defender Stephen Warnock told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It’s not the performance that many would have wanted.”
“Once the players start to adapt to this climate and this weather, we will start to see improved performances from them. We will start to see the players getting sharper.”
Warnock added: “You can read into it what you want, but this is just an exercise for Thomas Tuchel to work on a few partnerships and test a few bits out.”
“England have been here six days. That’s no time to acclimatise. Roughly it takes about two weeks to acclimatise and that is when England play Croatia - and that is when you want to see them looking sharp.”
“The most important thing is how they start the tournament. If they win the game against Croatia, nobody will care about these two warm-up games.”
“These players are probably playing at around 60% of their maximum capacity at the moment. They are just feeling their way into this climate and these games.”
England’s squad will be at full strength by the time they face Croatia. And that is when Tuchel can deliver the clearest indication of the route he will take to try to win the World Cup.
