Thomas Tuchel was brought in to deliver the biggest prize in football, and England are now only two matches away from World Cup glory. Yet the margins are brutally thin: one defeat from here and the scrutiny of his team’s style of play will become impossible to avoid.
It is a strange position to occupy, though hardly a new one in elite sport. For England supporters in particular, this uneasy blend of progress and dissatisfaction will feel familiar.
At England’s last summer tournament, Gareth Southgate endured plastic beer cups being hurled towards his feet during the group stage, only to steer his side to within touching distance of lifting the trophy.
For all England’s advancement through this World Cup, the performances have not truly convinced. There is little point dressing it up as something more fluent or commanding than it has been.
Much like at Euro 2024 in Germany, England have looked like a team built for decisive moments rather than dominant displays. The qualities that have carried them this far have been familiar, old English virtues: resilience, effort, stubbornness and an unwillingness to give in.
Thomas Tuchel is two games away from the ultimate prize as England manager at the World Cup
Gareth Southgate had plastic cups thrown at him after England drew with Slovenia in 2024
To be fair, England’s football has improved from what they produced in Germany. Euro 2024 felt like one tournament too many for Southgate, a sense reflected in the anxious, laboured rhythm of his team’s performances.
Here England have been united and driven and occasionally impressive in their own way – particularly in that win for the ages in Mexico City – but as the Daily Mail’s World Cup columnist Michael Owen said so well after that one, if you wanted 11 blokes willing to put their body in the way of a football for England, then go down to the local pub and open the door.
Tuchel said from the start that he wanted an England side capable of playing like a Premier League team. If were cruel, we would say that he’s brought a mid-table one to America.
England’s saviours so far have been Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham. Quite extraordinarily, they have scored twelve of England’s thirteen goals – six each – at this World Cup. Marcus Rashford scored the other as a substitute late in the opening game against Croatia almost a month ago.
The two men have been remarkable. Bellingham is arguably the star of the whole tournament while Kane has looked a player reborn.
After his lame, tired efforts in the Euros two summers ago, we started to talk about replacements. Here in America – in all manner of different conditions – he has been so full life and goals that the two men brought to provide back-up – Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney – have played a total of six minutes between them.
What, then, of the rest of them?
Apart from new Manchester City midfielder Elliot Anderson, England have not had a footballer out here worthy of more than a mark of six out of ten. That doesn’t normally bring a World Cup home.
Elliot Anderson and Jude Bellingham are among England’s best performers this summer
England’s wide players have been so ineffectual that none of them are yet to nail down a permanent berth in the team. Throw the four dice in the air and see how they land.
England’s plan to wow the world with the smartness of their set-pieces has fallen flat while in central attacking areas, England’s lack of creativity has been startling. That has perhaps been the greatest disappointment. Where has been the intelligence? What indeed has been England’s style of play? Do we know?
This has not been a tournament of smart football by Tuchel’s team and given the way he expressed his irritation after the quarter-final defeat of Norway in Miami on Saturday, it has disappointed him too.
England prevailed 2-1 after extra-time but it’s worth noting that at the end of a 90 minutes that had seen Tuchel’s team increasingly on the back foot, they had registered a single shot on target.
All this may seem rather sour as England prepare to face Argentina under the roof in Atlanta today. Maybe it doesn’t strike the tone that people would like, especially given the South American team are just as flawed and, as a result, eminently beatable. I actually think England start as favourites today.
But now that England are in the semi-final, the objective has to be to win the World Cup in New Jersey on Sunday. This is not about glorious failure. England have already done that in the World Cups of 1990 and 2018 and indeed the last two European Championships. This is about taking the next step and always has been.
This is about winning what Tuchel always refers to as that ‘second star’. To do that England are surely going to have to find another level if they were to make Sunday’s final against France or Spain at the MetLife.
In Germany two years ago, Southgate’s England muddled along a path that gave them a favourable draw and then were picked apart by a proper football team as Spain beat them in Berlin.
The likes of Harry Kane will face a different test in Atlanta against an aggressive Argentina defensive pairing
There are clear similarities to what has happened here in America so far and it’s a worry.
Kane and Bellingham will face a different kind of approach in Atlanta today. They haven’t been kicked about much so far in World Cup 2026 and that may well be about to change when faced with the Argentine defensive pair of Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez.
There are holes in the Argentina team. When Egypt turned them round to face their own goal in this same stadium eight days ago, the 2022 champions often found themselves unable to cope.
Equally, there is a unity and a collective desire about Lionel Scaloni’s side that England will recognise. Nine of that team that came from behind to beat Egypt started the final against France in Qatar three and a half years ago. They have a little bit of the doggedness that has helped England to this stage, too.
Currently, both look vulnerable in terms of their chances against France/Spain. They don’t look anywhere near that level. Both are a little fortunate to be where they are. Scaloni at least has one World Cup in his pocket to help him answer the questions if this transpires to be as far as his team go.
Tuchel only has promises made back at the start. If this doesn’t end up with his name in lights in New York on Sunday, it is unlikely to be portrayed as a hard luck story.
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