Tuchel’s England are winning without convincing at the World Cup
England sit top of Group L and are unbeaten, but a flat goalless draw with Ghana dragged up the old questions Thomas Tuchel still has to answer before the knockouts.
Jun 25, 2026
England are top of Group L, they have not lost a game, and they are one win away from a comfortable passage into the knockouts. On paper, Thomas Tuchel could not ask for much more from the first ten days of his World Cup. Watch the football, though, and the familiar unease is already back.
The opening night against Croatia was the version of England everyone wants to see going forward. Harry Kane scored twice, once from the penalty spot and once with a header from a Declan Rice corner, before Jude Bellingham struck early in the second half and Marcus Rashford settled a 4-2 win in Arlington. Croatia twice clawed their way level, so it was hardly watertight at the back, but England kept finding another gear in attack. It was bright, direct and, by the end, a little ruthless.
Then came Ghana in Boston, and the handbrake went on.
The same old goalless afternoon
England dominated the ball against Ghana and did almost nothing with it. The 0-0 draw was the kind of game that has followed this team around for years, the sort where possession piles up, the chances do not, and the crowd slowly works out that nobody on the pitch looks likely to score. Ghana defended with discipline and left with a point that suited them more than it suited England.
One flat afternoon is not a crisis. But it is a reminder that England’s biggest problem at major tournaments has rarely been getting out of the group. It has been what happens when a well-organised side sits deep, dares them to break it down, and waits. Ghana did exactly that and England had no obvious answer beyond hopeful crosses and Kane dropping deeper to find the ball.
Tuchel’s selection questions
This is where the Panama game on June 27 matters more than the result. Panama are already eliminated, so first place in the group is effectively England’s to lose on goal difference. That frees Tuchel to use the night as an audition rather than a must-win, and there are calls he needs to make before the knockouts arrive.
How does he get more out of Bellingham in the final third? Is Rashford a starter or an impact option? And who, beyond Kane, is England’s reliable source of a goal when the game is tight? Those are the questions a 0-0 leaves hanging, and they are the ones that decide tournaments once the group stage is done.
None of this means England are in trouble. They are winning, they have a captain in form, and a manager with a strong record in knockout football. But the gap between the side that beat Croatia and the side that stalled against Ghana is exactly the gap England have to close. Do it, and they look like genuine contenders. Leave it, and the Ghana game will read less like a blip and more like a warning.