So here we are. The World Cup final shaped up for Sunday evening, and while the narrative will rightly focus on the clash between Spain's relentless p...
So here we are. The World Cup final shaped up for Sunday evening, and while the narrative will rightly focus on the clash between Spain's relentless possession machine and Argentina's snarling resilience, there is a ghost at the feast. England's ghost. And it is a ghost that Thomas Tuchel personally invited to the party.Let us be brutally clear from the off. England's 10 goal thriller against France was a glorious, chaotic mess. It was the kind of football that sells replica kits and keeps the highlight reels spinning, but it was not the kind of football that wins World Cups. The defensive intensity was lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut, and that allowed Saka and Marcus Rashford to look lethal on the counter. But here is the rub. Had Tuchel unleashed those two against Argentina immediately after England drew level, Lionel Scaloni's men would have had to respect the threat. They would have had to leave defenders back. England would have had an out ball, a genuine transitional weapon, a reason for Argentina to think twice before committing everyone forward. Instead, the manager kept his powder dry, and Argentina simply kept swarming.The real kicker, however, is the midfield. Or rather, the complete absence of one. Anderson and Rice are fine players. They are honest, hardworking, committed. But football is not a honesty competition. It is a game of control, of poise, of craft. And England had none of it. When the team struggled to break down a tight block, which they did with alarming regularity, there was no cultured passer to unlock the door. Jude Bellingham is essential, no question, but he cannot do everything. He needs a foil, a technician, a brain. It is baffling that Tuchel gave Kobbie Mainoo not a single minute of pitch time. The decision seemed to have been made as early as the Panama group game, when Jordan Henderson was brought on ahead of him. In a squad crying out for a more cerebral presence, the one man who could have provided it sat on the bench with his tracksuit on.That is why, even if England had somehow navigated past France's chaos and into the final, I would have given them little chance against Spain. The Spanish will not offer the same space. They will compress the game, suffocate the midfield, and force England into the very tight spaces they struggled with all tournament. Tuchel's reluctance to trust his technical options, his insistence on a rigid double pivot when it clearly was not working, is the single biggest reason England are watching the final from home. It is a shame, because the raw talent was there. But talent without tactical flexibility is just a collection of expensive ornaments. And ornaments do not win World Cups.
