In AG Sports, we explain why Tuchel’s team couldn’t get past a draw against Ghana
The English national team was unable to break the 0-0 deadlock against Ghana on June 23 at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts during the second matchday of the group stage. England remains tied with Ghana on points within their group.
The first mistake: the roster
The players selected by Thomas Tuchel are the primary reason for England’s draw. In his lineup, there is no creative attacking midfielder capable of delivering the final pass or scoring from outside the box—the kind of goal that secures victory against deep-lying defenses.
Players like Cole Palmer, Morgan Gibbs-White, or even Phil Foden might have found the key more easily, as they’re accustomed to cutting into the middle and delivering the goal or assist that wins the game—unlike players such as Bellingham, who relies heavily on his runs into the box, or Eze, who is far more effective on the wing than in the center.
Wingers Without Solutions
Neither Anthony Gordon nor Noni Madueke, the starting wingers, gave the Three Lions any extra dimension to break through the lock that the Ghanaian national team had placed on their box. For the most part, the FC Barcelona signing focused on crossing the ball without finding the striker, and Noni Madueke took on his marker only to lose the ball on most occasions.
Saka’s absence from the starting lineup—even though he’s a starter at Arsenal ahead of Madueke (a team that came within two finals of winning a treble)—is, in a way, inexplicable, since when the young winger played on the right, he brought a lot of offensive threat and provided the English team with various options, even though he had very little time for his plays to make an impact on the game.
Once again, we return to the roster, in which a player like Trent Alexander-Arnold—perhaps the English player with the best ball control—was left at home instead of being called up as a solution for matches like the one posed by the Black Stars.
Harry Kane was off his game
The key to England’s attack didn’t have his day and didn’t get close to the goal, and this problem can be linked to the other shortcomings to explain why the English have no solution when Harry Kane isn’t on target.
We return to Palmer, a player who steps up in big moments, such as in the Euro final, where he scored a stunning goal against Spain in a match in which no other English player stood out.
Even Phil Foden, though he hasn’t had the best of seasons, usually steps up in the big Champions League matches Manchester City plays—which could have given England that impossible goal that wasn’t going to come from Harry Kane’s boots.
Where do you think England went wrong? Do you think they’re still favorites to lift the World Cup?