England had the ball for nearly four-fifths of the match in Boston and did not work Benjamin Asare into a save of any note until the 57th minute. Tuchel built this side to control games, and against Croatia six days earlier that control turned into a 4–2 win. Ghana arrived with a different idea. They set up in a 4-5-1, sat in it, and dared England to find a way through. England could not, and the ball went sideways for long stretches before the game ended 0–0.
Top of the group, then, but only just. England and Ghana both have four points and only goal difference separates them. And for all the talk afterwards, the draw did not actually book England a place in the last 32. A point against Panama on Saturday does that. The table still favours Tuchel. The performance is the part that should worry him, because nothing he tried in 90 minutes unlocked the door.
What the team sheet revealed against Ghana
Two changes came in from the Croatia win, both at the back. Guéhi came in for John Stones, and Spence took O’Reilly’s place at left-back. The Spence call was the odd one. He is a right-back, asked to cover on the left, and the seams showed almost at once. He kept drifting infield into Declan Rice’s space, England had no left-footer holding the touchline, and the overlap O’Reilly offers went missing.
The rest was familiar. Pickford behind a back four, Rice and Elliot Anderson screening, Bellingham at No.10, Gordon and Madueke either side of Kane. A 4-2-3-1 that wants the ball and holds it. The trouble is what comes after that. There is no natural lock-picker in the eleven, and that traces back to a decision Tuchel made in May, when he left Cole Palmer and Phil Foden out of the squad. With England pinned against a packed box and crying out for one clever pass, you could feel the gap where one of them might have stood.
England cannot break down a low block
The numbers are damning in a way the scoreline almost softens. England finished with 79% of the ball and 19 shots to Ghana’s two. Not one of those shots hit the target until the game was past the hour. The 79% is, by the record books, the most possession any team has had in a goalless World Cup game in 60 years, which tells you how little all that territory actually bought.
It was not for a lack of trying early. England had 60% of the ball in the first half and got it wide to Madueke again and again, and his best moment found Reece James overlapping into the box, only for the cutback to be hacked clear. After that the game flattened out, and England spent long spells passing in front of Ghana rather than through them.
Ghana defended superbly for it. Benjamin Asare, making his first World Cup start, was barely tested and kept the clean sheet. Carlos Queiroz had set Ghana up to spoil and frustrate, and from the first whistle that is what they did. Tuchel did not pretend to be surprised afterwards. He had seen the difficult night coming, he said, and his players had stayed patient when what they really needed was a little bravery.
The late flurry only underlined the problem. O’Reilly, on as a substitute, headed against the bar with five minutes left, and Kane volleyed the rebound over from close range when he would normally finish in his sleep. Guéhi had a header cleared off the line in stoppage time. England rode their luck too, with Konsa fortunate not to concede a penalty when he caught Prince Adu in the box. The draw also snapped a 12-match competitive winning run, and it was the fourth major tournament in a row in which England have drawn their second group game.
Who starts against Panama
This is where Tuchel has calls to make, and the substitutes made the strongest case of the night. The game only opened up once the bench emptied. Saka forced Asare into a save and Rashford finally gave England some directness, while O’Reilly, back at left-back, nearly won it with the header that cracked the bar.
Saka should start. Tuchel has already hinted that Panama is the game to bring him in, and after two flat showings from Anthony Gordon against Marvin Senaya, that switch is overdue. O’Reilly should come straight back in at left-back, because the Spence experiment did not work and England missed his runs in behind. If Rashford is fit, his form at Barcelona makes a strong case over Gordon on the other flank. The harder question sits in the middle. Without a Palmer or a Foden, who actually unpicks a back five when Bellingham is being crowded out of it?
Does Tuchel change the system before the knockouts
Panama will sit deep on Saturday, just as Ghana did, and so will most of what England meet once the round of 32 begins. Beating a low block is not a one-off puzzle for one game. It is the recurring question of the whole tournament for a team that is comfortable with the ball and short of ideas once it has it.
Tuchel has options, none of them obviously right. He could trust the same shape and demand more from the same players. There is a case for pushing Kane higher and playing a second striker off him, and a case for handing a more natural creator the keys and accepting a little less control in exchange for a little more risk. What he cannot afford is another 79% of the ball and one shot on target in a game England have to win. So the question that travels with them to New Jersey is the one Ghana just asked out loud. When a side simply refuses to come out and play, does this England have an answer?
