- 6 hours ago
England's World Cup sendoff didn't go to plan. A 1-1 draw with Uruguay, and a 0-1 defeat to Japan have raised more questions for Thomas Tuchel than answers. With stars misfiring, and places up for grabs, Adam Clery looks at the major issue the manager needs to solve before they head Stateside.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to ACFC, I'm Adam Cleary, this is a coffee, and speaking of things that are both
00:07flat and white, right, there's been some England friendlies.
00:11Now yes, fair enough, they did wear red in one of them, but if I told you that Big Tommy
00:16Tux had just showed you exactly how England were going to play at the coming World Cup, you would burst
00:24into tears.
00:25Because that was minging, but thankfully I think what you've just seen across those two games was less about the
00:31system and how it's going to play, and more about the individuals he's going to take to play it.
00:38And it wasn't at all entertaining, but it was a series of pretty clever auditions for a number of players
00:44in this squad, so let us look at who may have passed those, and who may have not.
00:55And just before we start, a reminder, look that ACFC is proudly brought to you by our pals at Trading212,
01:02hence Teddy Sheringham here, so there'll be an ad for them in a little bit.
01:06But yes, one thing we can say about England at the World Cup, straight out of the bin, is that
01:11it is going to be a 4-2-3-1.
01:15But mercifully, a 4-2-3-1 that actually works for the players that are in it, not like what
01:22we had at the Euros, which is a 4-2-3-1 full of just unparalleled ability, but completely lacking
01:29any synergy.
01:31Because then we had a centre forward who wanted to drop into these spaces, but also a turn and a
01:35left-sided forward who also wanted to play there.
01:38We also had a left-back who could not get up the pitch quick enough to fill this gap on
01:43the left, and a right-back who could get up the pitch quick enough,
01:46but was just forcing the right-sided attacker into the most congested area on the pitch.
01:51And finally, Connor Gallagher, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Kobi Maynou all being given a go at working well with Declan
02:00Rice,
02:00when none of them work well with Declan Rice. I hated it.
02:05But now, thankfully, Elliot Anderson is here, and he really does balance that midfield.
02:11You've got Gordon and Rashford, who are both proper wide left-sided attackers, so they give you a bit more
02:16balance there.
02:17And in Morgan Rodgers, of all players, you now at least do have the option of someone who will run
02:22beyond Harry Kane when he drops into that space.
02:26It works loads better now, despite, yes, how it may have looked in the last two games.
02:31Now, there are still some question marks about who starts a left-back, what do England do if Rhys James
02:37isn't fit,
02:38and what is the exact right combination of the centre-backs available.
02:43So then, what we've just seen in the Japan game especially was Tuchel not really worrying too much about how
02:50the team plays, thank God,
02:52and instead giving very specific auditions to a number of players for spots both on the plane and in the
03:00starting 11.
03:01So first off, right, Ben White. He is not Rhys James, and he's not even Tino Livramento,
03:07but he does, at club level, work really well with Pakaio Saka sometimes.
03:12So give him a go. Can he offer you enough in an England shirt with the other players around him
03:17to make him worth taking?
03:18And then also, there is Nico O'Reilly.
03:20We know he plays well for England, given his sort of impulse to drift in field, but he's never really
03:25been tested against a side who really tried to get at him.
03:30So we'd see if that worked here.
03:31And then you've got Kobe Mainu, who we know doesn't work brilliantly with Declan Rice,
03:36but if you have got Elliot Anderson in doing a lot of the hard work,
03:40does he then offer you something exciting in a double pivot, maybe slightly further up?
03:45Cole Palmer is now pretty far down the pecking order to start in the number 10 position,
03:50but does he maybe offer you something a little bit more dynamic, a little bit different,
03:55if you try him on the right-hand side?
03:57And finally, with Harry Kane getting injured,
04:00can Phil Foden, who is himself not pulling up any trees to play number 10,
04:05actually offer you something a bit different playing as a proper false nine?
04:11Because he has done that at City.
04:12And I don't know, right, if you actually sat and watched this entire game.
04:18But if you didn't, let me tell you, right,
04:21that almost every single one of these experiments failed and failed quite badly.
04:30And of course, if you did watch it, then sincere apologies,
04:33but we are going to have to relive some of that.
04:35Let's start at the back, right?
04:37Nico O'Reilly, he had some really tidy touches,
04:40which is exactly what you'd expect,
04:41but he really struggled with the direct running of the Japanese counterattacks.
04:46Several times in this game, he committed to trying to win a ball
04:50that he simply could not win and let a forward in behind him as a result.
04:56And I think what Tuchel will have learned there is that he's a very good option to have
05:00in games where England will dominate possession of the ball,
05:03like the Panama game in the groups, for example.
05:06But if you put him up against a really direct wide player,
05:10so like Kudis or Semenyo in the Ghana game,
05:15he's going to get targeted and eaten alive there.
05:18And then across to the other side, right?
05:20Ben White, likewise, found himself not really offering enough going forward
05:25to justify how open he was being at the back.
05:28Like here, I think he does pretty well to get him behind,
05:30but that's a really, really poor final ball.
05:34And he also really struggled against the counterattacks.
05:38Like when this is turned over, he is level, if not ahead of Nakamura here.
05:43And look how quickly he's just left in his wake.
05:46Now, it's not to say that Tino Livramento is inherently a much better player than Ben White,
05:52but I do think he would at least keep up with the running here
05:55and probably do a little bit better here.
05:58So he looks like another one who's probably going to end up staying home.
06:02Now, Kobimenu is the one out of all of these I actually thought did pretty well.
06:07Like you can see from his heat map of the game,
06:09he pretty much left all the build-up and all the work in his defensive third
06:13to Elliot Anderson, because that is Elliot Anderson's job,
06:17and instead focused on getting between the Japanese lines,
06:20finding the pockets to receive the ball.
06:23Now, I thought he did the first part of that, receiving the ball, very, very well.
06:27But from there, he sort of struggled to make any sort of positive forward action.
06:33Like a pass that isn't sideways, successfully beating a man.
06:36The stuff we know he can do, it just didn't feel like that part of it quite clicked for him.
06:42Now, don't get me wrong, right?
06:43I have seen some people saying that they thought he was really good last night.
06:47And I wouldn't actually argue with that.
06:49I just can't quite shake the feeling that you could put me in central midfield for England right now.
06:56And so long as I was next to Elliot Anderson, then I would look quite good as well.
07:01We all would. That's what he does.
07:05Now, just before we get into any of that,
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08:07Back to the video.
08:10But yes, anyway, I would say Kobi Manu is definitely on the plane this summer.
08:15But I'm struggling to see in what game you would choose to play him over Declan Rice for now.
08:22But the thing is, right, this is all totally fine.
08:25Like, Kobi Manu's a good player.
08:26He'll just take him anyway.
08:28Nico O'Reilly obviously has his uses, even if he's probably dropping out of the starting XI now.
08:33And that's sad for Ben White, but we have loads of options at full-back.
08:37None of this is really a problem, right?
08:40What is a problem was these two.
08:44Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, I would say, are England's two biggest stars, certainly on reputation, in this XI.
08:52And neither of them, I felt, made a positive attacking contribution in this game.
08:58Now, Foden, I thought, tried his best as a false nine.
09:01But with Palmer, Rodgers, and Gordon all wanting to be quite narrow,
09:05succeeded only, really, in clogging up this space, rather than making any for them to run into.
09:11And if we look at his heat map, right, he does not touch the ball once in the opposition box.
09:18And barely, you'd be being kind to say he touched it at all in the attacking third.
09:24He just could not get involved in the way he needed to.
09:27And don't worry, I know exactly what you're thinking.
09:29What an amazing-looking graphic that was.
09:32Adam, where can I, meaning you, get a piece of that?
09:36That's from Fotmob, who sponsor us here on the channel.
09:38They are, like, our official data friends.
09:41And I have the app on my phone.
09:43We use the heat maps, because they've got that now.
09:45But they've also got all the stats from the game's player profiles, fixtures, results.
09:49It is, it's the best football app you can get on your phone.
09:52You can download it from the link in the description, like I have.
09:56Off the ball, I thought he was a very, very willing oppressor.
09:59He really applied himself to that side of the game, but he didn't once turn the ball over.
10:04And you just cannot say that someone deserves to be in a World Cup squad on the basis of,
10:12well, you know, he ran around a lot.
10:15And between that and the hour he had against Uruguay,
10:18he was involved in only one attempt on goal.
10:22Like, he is such, such a talented player.
10:25But in an England shirt, this is just, it's nowhere near enough, is it?
10:30And this is a massive problem for Tuchel, because he is so good that it could just magically click in
10:38one game or one moment.
10:40But who are you going to leave out of a World Cup squad on that basis?
10:45Who are you going to tell that to?
10:46And I do wish that that was even his biggest problem, right?
10:51But it isn't, because for me, Cole Palmer is.
10:54And the thing is, unlike Phil Foden, he has looked really comfortable playing for England in the past.
11:01But this weird form he's been in all season has now spilled over into his England matches.
11:07If we look at his heat map from the game, right, you'll see he floated into this right-hand half
11:12space,
11:12which is where he's at his absolute best.
11:14He was pretty much changing positions with Morgan Rodgers the whole way through the game.
11:19And he even went a lot deeper to get the ball, which is what he's really good at against teams
11:24that are defending very deep.
11:26In theory, this is exactly what you want from Cole Palmer.
11:29But he was just so ineffective.
11:32He was getting dispossessed off the dribble.
11:34He was misplacing basic passes.
11:36He looked hesitant in dangerous areas.
11:38And he's the one who gives the ball away for the goal.
11:41Which, don't get me wrong, you can absolutely forgive.
11:44Like, players give the ball away all the time, and he does react to that turnover in possession and start
11:50chasing back.
11:51But he literally has his hand on the goal scorer as it's played out wide.
11:56And then he just ball watches as the move develops.
12:00Like, all he has to do is look here to see that O'Reilly is occupied, and then cover a
12:07cross to stop the shot.
12:08And in one moment, he would immediately atone for giving the ball away.
12:12But he doesn't.
12:13He does not look.
12:14He does not cover a cross.
12:15He does not atone.
12:16And that seemed to really affect him, I thought, for the rest of the match.
12:19And the thing is, they are two of the most talented players this country has right now.
12:25Like, two of the most talented players it's ever had.
12:28They win games of football on their own.
12:31But this was the last two games before this squad gets announced.
12:35And it's not even that they've made no case for their inclusion.
12:39They've actually made pretty strong cases not to take them.
12:43And just, like, worse still, the quadruple change that England made on the hour mark, which was specifically to take
12:50off all four of these experiments, led to them immediately getting a handle on the game and actually playing quite
12:58well.
12:58Like, just to oversimplify it for you, right?
13:00A momentum graph measures possession, chances, where on the field you're controlling the game, and so on.
13:05And this is England with all four of those players on the pitch, right?
13:11And then this is them after that.
13:14Like, Solanke and Bowen, I do not think will even go to the World Cup.
13:19But purely by virtue of them being far more natural in the positions they were playing, England just immediately improved.
13:27So, right now, Thomas Tuchel has a problem.
13:31I think this, if everybody is fit, is probably the starting XI for the very first game of that World
13:38Cup, right?
13:39I do think you start Rodgers, but then you look to bring Bellingham in as the tournament goes on, right?
13:44So, these 12 players, this is England.
13:47And the thing is, right, I don't think getting beaten 1-0 by Japan, when you've only got, like, three
13:53or four of these starting, is the problem at all.
13:56Japan are a good side.
13:57These things can just happen.
13:59The problem is that the XI behind this XI worries me.
14:05Like, whether it's through injury or fatigue or just tactical flexibility, you are going to need some sort of contribution
14:12from a number of these players.
14:14And right now, I would say there's only Anthony Gordon and Kobi Mainu who are inspiring a lot of confidence
14:22in you.
14:23Maybe Tino Livramento, if Rhys James is fit.
14:26And out of all of that, you'd probably say there's only one of them who feels like he's really pushing
14:32the guy in front of him to actually start.
14:36And in an expanded tournament with more games and incredibly hot weather, you are not going to go and win
14:43that thing with 11 players.
14:45Well, I say obviously I've got 12 here because I just expect Bellingham will just magically be good like he
14:52was last time.
14:53But you're going to need more than that.
14:54You're going to need depth.
14:56And right now, England's depth is concerning.
15:01And the mad thing is, it's not because there's a lack of talent there.
15:05Like, some of these are brilliant footballers.
15:08But there is a real, like, lack of form across the season or just a lack of consistency for England
15:13in pretty much all of this.
15:16Like, if Tuchel is hoping that competition for places will drive standards or that he'll be able to extensively rotate
15:23to keep players fresh,
15:26he's got a problem.
15:27But hey, that's just what an England home friendly is all about, isn't it?
15:33Putting in the worst possible performance to make you really worried about the upcoming tournament.
15:38We do it every single time.
15:41So I wouldn't stress too much.
15:44And do you know what?
15:44I'll tell you what's fun.
15:45Let's all put our England starting 11s in the comments, please.
15:49Because I think everyone's going to have the same eight players now.
15:55So I'm interested to see who those other three, is that three, that three, are for everybody else.
15:59And, of course, you can follow me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
16:03And if you haven't subscribed to ACFC yet, my God, click the little button there.
16:07Because more of those make my heart grow bigger.
16:10Thanks again and, as ever, to our Bessie commercial buds trading 212.
16:15Click the link in the description to start your journey on that.
16:18And also FopMob, who, as I've said, all the graphics are provided by them.
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16:26But until next time, I've been Adam Cleary.
16:29This has been England.
16:32And I'll see you soon.
16:33Goodbye.
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