England is about to walk into the Azteca for a World Cup knockout game against Mexico with a right-back problem that has no clean solution. Thomas Tuchel has six options. None of them inspire much confidence. Let’s run through them anyway.
Trevoh Chalobah: The Guy Who Isn’t a Right-Back
Chalobah is a center-back who got called up to replace an injured right-back. That decision alone has made Tuchel a target for criticism. And the evidence doesn’t help. Chalobah started exactly one Premier League game at right-back last season for Chelsea. They were 2-0 down at halftime against Leeds and he got moved inside. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. But he’s here now, and if Tuchel is willing to try it, he’s an option. Just not a great one.
Ezri Konsa: The ‘Not Terrible’ Fallback
Konsa has played right-back for Tuchel before and been fine. Fine is about as much as anyone can hope for at this point. His center-back form has been shaky enough during the tournament that moving him wide doesn’t feel like a major disruption. It’s not ideal, but it’s not a disaster either.
Djed Spence: Fast, Frustrating, and Yelled At
Spence has the raw tools. He’s fast. He can defend. The problem is that his brain seems to default to the safe pass backward instead of trying anything dangerous. Against DR Congo, there were multiple moments where Noni Madueke laid the ball back to Spence and he just… passed it backward again. Tuchel spends entire halves yelling at him. It’s a mindset thing. Spence could be effective if he’d just try a cross or make a run to pull a defender out of position. He doesn’t. That’s why the coach yells.
Declan Rice at Right-Back: The Desperation Move
Rice is England’s best midfielder and probably their closest approximation to Trent Alexander-Arnold in this role. He looked sharp when he filled in there against DR Congo. The knock-on effect of moving Rice wide is that Jude Bellingham drops deeper, and he ran the game from there against Panama. The problem? Rice’s hamstrings are already in the red zone. Asking him to sprint up and down the Azteca at altitude for an hour might break him. But that’s a problem for the quarterfinals if they get there.
Reece James: The Fantasy Option
Tuchel made a joke about nobody predicting Reece James would get hurt, but the alternative is that he actually planned to rely on James as his only specialist right-back for a tournament that requires five games in 19 days. That would be reckless. If James magically gets healthy, great. But he’d need to play like the old Reece James, not the version we saw against Ghana.
Let’s Be Honest: No Good Answers Here
England is going to have to pick one of these guys and hope for the best. Mexico at the Azteca is a brutal test for any defense, let alone one with a makeshift right-back. Tuchel has to choose. Nobody is happy about it.
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