England is in a World Cup semifinal, which by any sane measure means things are going well. But leave it to the English football public to find something to argue about even when their team is winning. The question that keeps coming up in mailbags and message boards isn’t about tactics or formation or whether Jude Bellingham can carry the team again. It’s about Kobbie Mainoo. Specifically: why is he even in the squad if Thomas Tuchel won’t use him?
One fan in Bermuda laid it out bluntly. When a central midfielder had to come off, Tuchel had two obvious choices. Option A: bring on Mainoo, a fresh midfielder who hasn’t played a minute yet but also happens to be a key part of the Premier League team that racked up the most points since Christmas. Option B: bring on an attacker, push your best player out of position, watch the whole plan collapse, nearly go down a goal to Norway, and then scramble to fix it by throwing in a right back instead of the midfielder who was sitting there the whole time. England won anyway, but the question lingers. What is Mainoo doing on the bench in a tracksuit if he’s not good enough to get on the field when the midfield needs fresh legs?
England fans are having a blast, actually
For all the griping about performance and selection, there’s a real argument happening in the mail that the actual experience of being an England fan right now is pretty great. One supporter pointed out that since 2018, England has generated more genuine, celebration-worthy moments than in the previous 35 years combined. Last-minute winners, penalty shootout victories, comebacks against tough opponents. The list is long and it’s real. Tunisia. Colombia. Germany. Denmark. Italy in a final even if it ended badly. Slovakia. Switzerland. Netherlands. Spain in the Euro final even if they lost. Now Norway in extra time. That’s a lot of fun, and that matters.
The same fan made a sharp observation: for decades, England was the team that couldn’t get over the line. Epic battles, miserable flops, same result. Now they consistently find a way. It’s not always pretty. It’s rarely dominant. But the desire to win, the thing fans spent years begging for, is finally there. Maybe that’s enough for now.
Tuchel’s media confrontations are becoming a thing
Another recurring theme in the mailbag: people love watching Thomas Tuchel embarrass reporters. After the Norway game, a journalist tried to bait him with a question about mentality, and Tuchel’s response was apparently dripping with contempt. One fan described it as “repeated back-handers planted on the reporter.” Another called the media’s attempts to manufacture conflict “toxic” and said the English press doesn’t actually want England to win — they want clicks.
There was also a strong reaction to the way a different reporter tried to bring up Tuchel’s response during Jude Bellingham’s post-match interview. No context, just prodding for a reaction. Manufactured drama. One reader said it was a “d*** move” and called for a media panel where players and managers get to ask why the press acts the way they do.
The data says England’s path is getting harder
A longer analysis in the mailbag looked at recent World Cup history and drew an uncomfortable conclusion. In the last five tournaments, the winner has almost always come from the team that played their semifinal first. That extra day of rest, combined with modern sports science, has become a huge advantage when the margins between finalists are razor-thin. England plays their semifinal on the second day. Argentina plays first. And both teams have already gone to extra time in knockout rounds. The data suggests the team that wins their semifinal in regulation and then watches the other match go to penalties has a clear path to the trophy.
That’s the math. The actual games still have to be played. But the margin for error is getting smaller, and the bench decisions Tuchel makes in the next match are going to be scrutinized even harder than the ones against Norway.
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