Thomas Tuchel has a lot to sort out before England face DR Congo in Atlanta on Wednesday, according to former captain Alan Shearer, who says the manager is still searching for solutions after three World Cup games.
England topped their group, the main aim, but have arrived in the last 32 after so much chopping and changing in several positions that we are no closer to knowing what our best team is, Shearer wrote for BBC Sport.
“Alan Shearer says Thomas Tuchel still lacks a settled side despite England topping their World Cup group.”
You don't have to have all the answers, even at this stage of a tournament – injuries and suspensions mean teams always have to adapt – but Tuchel has quite a lot to sort out, Shearer said.
The reason Tuchel has tried so many combinations of full-backs and wingers is that he has not quite worked it out yet. Across 270 minutes involving eight different players, there have been nine different combinations on the flanks, Shearer noted.
Injuries to Reece James and Jarell Quansah at right-back have not helped, and neither has Bukayo Saka not being 100% fit. But, for whatever reason, we have not posed a consistent threat down the flanks and constantly changing the back four has not helped our defensive stability either. We've looked uncomfortable whenever teams have attacked us, which is a worry, Shearer added.
There are lots of reasons to be positive about England so far at this World Cup, Shearer said, pointing to several players who have produced. Elliot Anderson was absolutely superb against Panama, while Jude Bellingham was man of the match and rightly so, and Harry Kane got his goal, again. Along with Jordan Pickford and Declan Rice, they are the spine of the team and you know you can hang your hat on them when it matters.
Maybe we haven't seen as much from every part of Tuchel's team as we'd like, but we still know we can rely on our big-hitters to step up and produce something brilliant to change the course of the game, Shearer said. He cited Bellingham's goal against Panama, turning in Saka's corner: It wasn't even a particularly good ball in, but Bellingham made it into one. Say what you like about the defending, but it was still impressive how he got on the end of it, showing his strength, balance and skill. After he scored, there was only going to be one winner.
Ideally, we wouldn't be relying on someone to get us a goal out of nothing, like Bellingham did, Shearer admitted. I'd prefer it if our system was providing us with a platform for creating lots of chances in open play, but there are going to be times like that in every game where things are not working for you.
It is not as if we were looking dangerous before we scored, but we already knew how important set-pieces are and it's certainly not a bad thing to have big players you can rely on to provide a magic moment like that when the team needs it, Shearer concluded.