London – The mandate of Thomas Tuchel as manager of England was launched in a solid, although little spectacular way, on Friday, the goals in any half win their team a 2-0 victory over Albania in its qualifier of the Opening World Cup. Myles Lewis-Skelly marked his senior debut in an outstanding way, limiting 19 minutes of domain of the hosts with the aperture target, sliding behind to claim Jude Bellingham’s pass through five bodies and accumulate his first international goal.
England could have had more in a first half of high intensity, Harry Kane saw a shot blocked on the line and the debutant Dan Burn approaching with a header. Albania, however, raised more problems after the interval, finding time to work around the press of its opponents and seek to send their ends flying forward at the counter.
However, just when the nerves began to give Wembley, a family figure delivered a relaxing balm. A good first touch of Kane took the cross of Declan Rice del Aire; Having taken the ball out of his feet, England’s record scorer reached its minimum 70th in the farthest corner.
There will be more difficult evidence ahead for Tuchel, and given time, it will be reasonable to wait a more complete game plan instead of what seemed a repetition of the usually effective qualification matches of Gareth Southgate. For now, however, there were still some notable settings and adjustments to remove victory.
1. England brings early energy
A ball has not even been kicked and you can see an facet from England facing the identity of the Premier League with which Thomas Tuchel wants to imbue them. Kane and Bellingham, two main exports to the continent, are aligned in the middle, right at the edge of the circle. Before a ball has been kicked, the last false beginnings, approaching half of Albania and forcing Alejandro Hernández to start again. The next time Bellingham left the blocks at the right time and in a few seconds, England had forced Albania to turn her first possession spell into a helmet in the field.
If the adjustments in possession were a bit more subtle in the first exchanges, there is only much that can be done by attacking a low block, but England at least did it with a larger zip, what was most notable was how Tuchel’s men pursued after the ball in each billing. Within the first quarter of an hour, Declan Rice crashed in the field to block an attempt at a free space, the ball did not land on the road of Kane, and Phil Foden had almost revived a dangerous movement on the right flank with a sliding backle of the complete tasks. Even Kane, who has not had the legs for a high press for the past five years, worked to close passenger lanes.
This is perhaps the most pronounced early adjustment of Southgate’s England. They see the tournaments in particular, everyone was too prepared to fall into their defensive banks, understandably since they constantly moved in the last stages when giving up half of a goal expected by a game. Such approach had its advantages, but it also meant that the opposition had time to establish its rest defense before possession returned to England. Hence the many agonizing group games against the supposedly lower opposition where the ball seemed to move through the middle third of the field in six paintings per second. At his best, at first, the energy that England took out of possession could not avoid bleeding his ball playing.
“I was quite happy with the beginning and structure, especially to control the counterattacks,” Tuchel said about work outside the ball. “We were structured, we tried to find the holes.”
Ninety minutes were not necessarily enough to expel England from some of their quieter habits and exhausting legs in the second half meant that Albania had more opportunities to look up and choose a pass. But for the last man of Ezri Konsa, for Ezri Konsa, an equalizer could well have been presented. It is also worth questioning from the beginning of how England will see the 60 -minute brand in the kind summer night in Miami or Mexico City that they could face in the 2026 World Cup, if they begin with something like the intensity they did tonight. That is an issue for the next five camps. This was about establishing a tone, bringing a little more domestic style to the English game. Tuchel’s charges began in the right way.
2. Bellingham shines, but the clock is working in Foden
In possession there were certainly encouraging signs for Tuchel. Curtis Jones and Rice established a stable platform around which Bellingham could do what he considered convenient. And if any midfielder has earned the right to wander, it is the one who in successive seasons in Real Madrid has proven to be as effective without the ball as with him.
On Friday, Bellingham was more progressive and creator than the disruptor who has often been at the club level. When the opportunity came deeply, I was looking to spray the ball to the flanks or carry it forward and in the teeth of the Albanian defense. England needed more of that, as Tuchel pointed out at his press conference after the game, particularly when he ended with a pass that bisects two defensive lines and left Lewis-Skelly with the best opportunity in the game.
The same dynamism did not reach the flanks. For Foden, in particular, this was another game that happened. By possession, his diligence could not be criticized, and there were moments of good interaction with Jones. There were also no shots, no possibilities and two touches were created in the penalty area, four less than anyone who began in the first four.
Neither fod nor Marcus Rashford escaped from a solid evaluation of Tuchel. “Our both extremes were not as shocking as they can normally be, as they are in club football.” In Foden in particular, he had said: “We will encourage him to do what he does best, to go with the defenders, to drip while we play it today from the right wing.”
Obviously, this is a talent that has deserved the patience of England’s configuration, but foden now has 43 caps. How many of them can be said to produce a game that even approximated his basal performances in a Manchester City shirt? In the summer, Bukayo Saka will have the opportunity to reaffirm his excellence with Foden and Cole Pale in the Club World Cup.
If the Arsenal striker blocks that point and Bellingham continues this brilliant start, the only remaining place will be on a left flank where Foden fought in the euros (and where England began with seemingly instructed rashford to stay high and wide).
Tuchel saw enough last summer to know about the player’s struggles in that place. Time can be exhausted to foden to show that it is worth accommodating it.
3. Problem position? Resolved
Just when you thought England was going to have a problem on the left one more time – The position in which only Ashley Cole and Luke Shaw have really highlighted this century: they seem to have landed in a fairly special perspective. The youngest to score in his debut in England, Lewis-Skellly resorted to Wembley with the same ease and authority that has characterized his advance at the club level. Less than six months ago since Erling Haaland was asking the graduate of the Arsenal Academy who was, in more agricultural terms.
He and the rest of the English game have quickly relieved. In the time elapsed since the bust that reduced the curtain in his debut in the Premier League, Lewis-Skellly has potentially reviewed an Italian international and a series winner of the Premier League (among others) so that it may become the first option of Arsenal. He has applauded in Haaland in a memorable way, comes through weeks of media attention and won a fast track in the England team. It is not bad at all for a player who had not played on the left before being pushed to the position by Mikel Arteta during the preseason.
“He is not afraid,” said Lewis-Skelly Arsenal teammate, Declan Rice. “He does everything directly from the field, and he is only 18 years old. He knew he was going to play like this tonight due to the confidence he has. He has kept his feet on the floor and is just the beginning for him.”
That undoubtedly seems to be the case. And early, even if anyone is binding an 18-year-old boy to a position in the field, there is an extremely convincing argument for both Arsenal and England, which allows Lewis-Skelly to reach the left. After all, you can significantly impact the game on so many facets from that place in the field. In the minutes before that race behind the finish line, Lewis-Skelly had put himself to the left of the three in the accumulation, had bombarded beyond Marcus rashford of pure wing and joined the front line as an inner striker. It is not surprising that Albania has not seen the danger come.
When Tuchel wanted to add an additional body in the field in possession, it was Lewis-Skelly who turned, the teenager got to be an eight “because we wanted to run more risks and approach the players.” From a position on the back, England got a center of the defensive field, a progressive ball and a defender, all in a single package. It seems easy to imagine the incessant debate on whether both Tuchel and Artet In fact Impact on the game, as has been said about Trent Alexander-Arnold. And yet, the only thing that this intrepid young man is doing consistently is really affecting the game in a positive way. Why would someone want to change that?
