After dropping a four-spot on Croatia to open the World Cup, England walked into Friday’s match against Ghana feeling pretty good about itself. That feeling did not survive the first half.
The Three Lions had the ball. They had 19 shots by the final whistle. And for all that possession and volume, they managed exactly three shots on target. Harry Kane skied the best chance of the game over the bar. Ghana, meanwhile, looked comfortable defending in a mid-block and never really looked like they were going to lose.
Alan Shearer, working commentary for the match, called it exactly what it was. “Not a disaster but it is absolutely a reality check,” he said. “England struggled to find the answers tonight. They were too slow. They didn’t find enough in the wide areas.”
He’s not wrong. England’s buildup play was glacial. There were spells where the ball moved sideways for minutes at a time with nobody willing to take a risk. Micah Richards picked up on that, saying the team just wasn’t brave enough. “People were making too many safe passes,” he said. “You’ve got to be more brave.”
Joe Hart, another former England international in the punditry booth, tried to keep things in perspective. “It’s key we don’t get too high and we don’t get too low,” he said. “It could’ve been worse tonight. Loads of things to work on.”
Wayne Rooney, who knows a thing or two about early World Cup exits, reminded everyone that this is not 2014 all over again. “Me and Joe have experience going out of a World Cup after two games,” he said. “It’s not a disaster at all, qualified for the next round, there’s just little details.”
That part is true. England still tops the group after four points from two matches. But the difference between the Croatia performance and the Ghana one is jarring enough that Thomas Tuchel has real questions to answer before Saturday’s group finale against Panama.
Left side issues, again
Tuchel made a change at left wing-back for this game, swapping Nico O’Reilly out for Djed Spence. It didn’t fix much. O’Reilly actually came off the bench and looked sharper than Spence had all night. All the pundits expect another change there, maybe back to O’Reilly, maybe something else entirely. The point is, that position is still unsettled.
Panama is next, and England will probably have an easier time of it. That’s partly about the level of opposition and partly about the fact that Tuchel now has a week between games to clean up the passing patterns and fix whatever made the attack so static against Ghana.
But the bigger question is how this team handles a game where the opponent doesn’t just roll over. Croatia came to play and England carved them up anyway. Ghana came to defend and England had nothing. That’s the kind of split that usually gets exposed in knockout rounds, not group play.
Still, England controls its own path. Win against Panama on Saturday and it’s through as group winners. Lose or draw and the math gets complicated. Hart summed it up simply: “I expect them to go and perform on Saturday night.”
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