Clamour for Cole Palmer amid five England exiles Tuchel now needs | OneFootball

Cole Palmer was the absentee England missed most against Ghana but there are four others who Thomas Tuchel could use after all at the World Cup…

The Three Lions, as is now traditional at major tournaments, drew their second group game while failing to break down stubborn opposition.

A goalless stalemate is hardly fatal to England’s hopes of World Cup glory, but the performance prompted fears that Tuchel has missed a trick. Or five.

Here are five players he left at home he could have done with in United States. Starting with the bleedin’ obvious…

Cole Palmer

In the wake of England’s failure to break down Ghana, there is an inevitable clamour this morning for Palmer. Even us, as the contrary pr*cks we sometimes are, aren’t going to counter it.

In a squad of 26 players, there was room for Palmer. Of course there was.

Granted, the Chelsea star has struggled for form last season but when England were flinging sh*t at the Ghana wall, all Tuchel could summon from his bench were like-for-like replacements.

Even on his bad days, Palmer finds the pockets of space better than anyone else, which was woefully needed in Boston where Ghana simply funnelled England into traps, while the Three Lions were incapable or unable to find a different solution.

Tuchel clearly thought long and hard about the make-up of his squad, making sure to have cover across all positions so his plan could not possibly be hampered by fitness or form issues.

In that respect, he nailed it. But he does not seem to have considered the possibility that, sometimes, the plan itself might be a problem rather than those trying to implement it.

Anyway, Palmer being in the squad rather than Ibiza would hardly have forced Tuchel to tear up his blueprint. The shape need not change but, crucially, Palmer’s more maverick approach would offer some variety from the identikit options England currently possess.

Adam Wharton

The final ball was a problem, but so was the first…

England’s need for greater ingenuity extended backwards from the forward line, through the midfield, probably back as far as the centre-backs.

With Ezri Konsa and Marc Guehi struggling to thread needles, England needed a deeper dictator. With Declan Rice bombing on between lines and down dead ends, it was left to Elliot Anderson.

The Forest midfielder is a fine passer…but Wharton is better.

Anderson’s withdrawal was an admission nobody needed from Tuchel that England were struggling to penetrate Ghana’s frontline, so Eberechi Eze was an odd replacement. The Arsenal forward has many qualities, but he’s not a deep-lying playmaker. The change simply clogged up England’s frontline, leaving the centre-backs left holding the ball.

Would Kobbie Mainoo have been a better change? Maybe…but probably not. Jordan Henderson? We’re not sure of the in-game circumstances that would call for England’s goodest egg.

It was inevitable that England would come up against a low block, but the depth of it surprised Tuchel. Now opponents have a blueprint to stop the Three Lions, especially without a midfielder with Wharton’s vision and range.

Lewis Hall

Must everything be inverted these days?

In the case of England’s wingers and full-backs, apparently so. The vast majority of the draw with Ghana was played with the Three Lions driving inside from the touchline, which is inevitable when wingers play on the opposite side.

At least on the right, Reece James offers a right-footed option, even if his instructions are to underlap rather go over or around his winger.

On the left, though, both Anthony Gordon and Djed Spence are right footed and, boy, did it show.

Modern coaches not only appear cool with one-dimensional wingers, they seem to encourage it. It can be effective, of course, but it can also be bloody easy to defend against when it becomes as predictable as we fear it has with England already.

Even if Gordon, or Marcus Rashford, must insist on dribbling inside, a natural left-sider going outside offers either a different prong to the attack, or at the very least a decoy to keep defenders guessing.

Nico O’Reilly is as left-footed as Hall or Luke Shaw, but the City youngster’s instincts take him inside too. He’s a midfielder moonlighting very well as a full-back.

We made our peace with the initial omission of Hall and Shaw, but replacing the injured Tino Livramento with another centre-back in Trevoh Chalobah was a missed opportunity.

Harry Maguire

Tuchel’s choice of centre-backs, for the squad and his XI, has sparked plenty of debate, and we know Maguire’s thoughts on his admission from the distance his dummy was spat.

His reaction may have left Tuchel feeling vindicated, with Dan Burn chosen instead as the centre-back who can double up as a desperate aerial attacking threat.

But while Ghana dealt all too comfortably with England’s flurry of late corners last night, Maguire must have been heading walls in his living room.

It is hardly as though England would be sacrificing much defensively by having Maguire on hand since Tuchel’s rearguard has already looked worryingly ropey.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

England lacked creativity on Tuesday night so it is compulsory at this point to mention Trent and his Unique Skillset.

Yes, he’s defensively-suspect enough to be ignored by Tuchel, Sir Gareth Southgate and, most probably, Jose Mourinho, but his creative traits still blind many pundits to those flaws and the clamour for Trent, though subdued, rumbles on.