No case for the defence means no case for England to win 2026 World Cup | OneFootball

As the fallout from England’s goalless draw with Ghana continues, perhaps the most telling thing is that all the noisiest Clamour surrounds players who aren’t even here.

That’s in some large part due to Thomas Tuchel selecting a slightly idiosyncratic squad, one in which he did precisely what people have been demanding from England managers for as long as we can remember: try and pick the best squad, not just the best players.

Such complaints go back to, at the very least, Sven’s era. Now a manager has finally truly attempted it the response is clear. “No, not like that.”

But it goes deeper than that. There’s a kind of forlorn comfort to be found now in pretending that Phil Foden’s infamously miserable, confused and confusing England career would now magically be different. Or that if Trent Alexander-Arnold were here England could go all the way. Or that Cole Palmer’s 2025/26 season simply didn’t happen.

Those are fantasies, and we can understand their appeal because the bald truth is that anything England or Tuchel might have done differently up to this point or do differently from this point is largely futile because unless it sorts out a chaotic and ropey defence it wouldn’t really mean anything.

There’s been a half-hearted effort to make Djed Spence the scapegoat for England’s disappointment against Ghana. It makes sense. He’s an easy target as a brash, divisive character whose inclusion in the squad – never mind starting XI – was already a point of contention.

The memeable qualities of Tuchel spending much of the first hour of the Ghana game screaming at his defensive-minded right-footed left-back for not being Roberto Carlos are also hard to resist.

But the most damning thing about Spence’s performance against Ghana is really that he was by quite some margin England’s least alarming defender.

His inability and apparent unwillingness to help Anthony Gordon fashion greater attacking possibilities on the left flank was a problem for England. When he made way for Nico O’Reilly, there was no doubt England carried far greater threat. But it was also at that point that Ghana started to believe they could win the game themselves. Given how little attacking threat Ghana carried, England spent the closing stages of that game looking deeply vulnerable.

And that, rather than the familiar inability to solve the puzzle and unlock a committed low block, was what made that game feel like it might be something different to previous recent examples of England’s second-game fever at major tournaments.

There’s no doubt Tuchel was correct to bring O’Reilly on against Ghana. He probably should have started. But the surprising and distressing thing is that it should actually have been Reece James who made way, with Spence moving to right-back. James was awful against Ghana having been conspicuously caught out on multiple occasions by the wily Ivan Perisic in the opener.

His time in Chelsea’s midfield seems to have sapped his instincts in a position where he once held legitimate claims to be the world’s best.

While The Clamour largely swirls around outside-the-squad impossibilities that in any case require significant amnesia, the main place it does reside within the current squad is for whichever centre-back didn’t play the last game.

Clamour often requires an ability to forget things that happened more than one game ago and feeds off the old cliché that your value is never higher than when you’re out of the team.

Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka and, to an extent, Morgan Rogers are all benefiting from that phenomenon post-Ghana, but Marc Guehi and John Stones both had much better games sitting on the England bench than they did stumbling around the heart of Tuchel’s defence.

Ezri Konsa appears to be the one certainty in that back four now, and even his biggest contribution thus far has been to somehow avoid conceding a penalty for a desperate off-the-ground lunge against Ghana.

Meanwhile, the Clamour lurches from Guehi to Stones and back again while Dan Burn remains at all times Dan Burn and Trevoh Chalobah’s call-up instantly memory-holed by everyone up to and including Tuchel himself. Nobody even seems interested in trying to pretend Jarell Quansah might be the solution to it all.

An England team that conceded not one single goal in qualification suddenly finds itself in the midst of a defensive crisis. There is now no compelling centre-back pairing. Jordan Pickford looks understandably rattled behind whatever is placed in front of him.

And the only full-back currently doing any halfway convincing defending may even have just nudged ahead of Jude Bellingham atop the England 2026 World Cup Scapegoat Power Rankings.

England’s failure to unpick the Ghana defence was and is frustrating. But also just doesn’t really matter. They will come up against few teams interested in playing like that should they get to the business end of the tournament.

But they’ll come up with plenty who’ll relish their chances of carving that defence apart.

Sure, England’s attack misfired against Ghana and changes to its personnel and/or shape will follow. Yet it remains an attacking unit capable of going all the way despite – because of, even – the quality of attacking players sat at home.

The frailty of that defence is far more intransigent and deep rooted and surely at this point almost impossible to resolve. We certainly can’t see how Cole Palmer or Phil Foden might help.