England fail to release handbrake as awful night against Senegal exposes gap to elite | OneFootball

Three Lions failed to deliver on Thomas Tuchel’s promise of a more exciting display to sum up a hugely frustrating camp

England had won all three games under Thomas Tuchel before Tuesday night, but it didn’t feel like things were going quite that well then and it certainly doesn’t now. His winning start as head coach is over.

At full-time here in Nottingham, a fuming Jude Bellingham immediately began roaring at the linesman, after he had seen a late equaliser for 2-2 disallowed by VAR because of a handball from Levi Colwill. Bellingham angrily booted a drinks cooler, needing Harry Kane to push him onto the pitch to calm down and congratulate Senegal.

Tuchel had promised his team would play with “more freedom” than against Andorra, but instead it was Senegal whose free-flowing football caused problems. They should be just fine at the World Cup next summer, but will England?

The decision to rule out Jude Bellingham’s late equaliser left England furious

Action Images via Reuters

The defending by England for the goals by Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra and Cheick Sabaly showed just how much work there is to be done between now and then.

A night in which England’s opponents were supposed to come out, leave spaces, and let them play instead turned into an event that exposed how far off Europe’s elite sides, such as France and Spain, they currently are.

Senegal, ranked 19th in the world, pressed extremely high and caused constant problems.

Goalkeeper Dean Henderson was needed early to deny Premier League regulars Nicolas Jackson, Idrissa Gueye and his own Crystal Palace team-mate Sarr, and then, with England complacent after Kane’s opener, the visitors enjoyed a prolonged period of possession for the final 15 minutes.

In that time, Kyle Walker — 35 years of age and error-prone all night — sluggishly lost his marker and allowed Sarr to level the match.

Habib Diarra gave Senegal a deserved lead after the break

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Kane, with his close-range finish in the first half, became the first player ever to net in all of a new England manager’s first four matches. At times, it felt as though he was the only one in a white shirt committing the same energy and effort as the Senegal players.

That was damning for England, considering this performance was supposed to offer a positive reaction from Saturday’s disappointing display against Andorra, after which Tuchel said his side had not worked hard enough “in pure kilometres”. Had they here? It was hard to argue they had.

When Tuchel changed things up by introducing Nottingham Forest hero Morgan Gibbs-White — which drew a loud cheer — plus Morgan Rogers and Curtis Jones and set up without a conventional striker, things improved marginally. At last there was invention in England’s game, and they nearly scored through Gibbs-White and then the otherwise quiet Bukayo Saka.

But instead of make use of fresh legs, England continued to leave gaps defensively and allowed Sabaly to increase Senegal's advantage once Bellingham’s touch-and-volley leveller was disallowed for a Colwill handball.

The final chance of the match saw late substitute Ivan Toney size up a header on goal and then nod the ball backwards. That just about summed England up on an awful night that was not the release of handbrake it was supposed to be.