England thrive in Thomas Tuchel’s debut as Jude Bellingham stars and an answer at left back finally emerges

LONDON — Thomas Tuchel’s tenure as England manager got underway in solid if unspectacular fashion on Friday, goals in either half earning his side a 2-0 win over Albania in their opening World Cup qualifier. Myles Lewis-Skelly marked his senior debut in outstanding fashion, capping off 19 minutes of dominance from the hosts with the opening goal, gliding in behind to claim Jude Bellingham’s pass through five bodies and slot down his first international goal.

England might have had more in a high-intensity first half, Harry Kane seeing a shot blocked on the line and debutant Dan Burn going close with a thundering header. Albania, however, posed more trouble after the interval, finding time to work around their opponents press and look to send their wingers flying forward on the counter.

However, just as the nerves began to jangle around Wembley, a familiar figure delivered a soothing balm. A fine first touch from Kane took Declan Rice’s cross out of the air; having jiggled the ball out of his feet, England’s record goalscorer then struck his 70th low into the far corner. 

There will be tougher tests ahead for Tuchel, and given time it will be reasonable to expect a more comprehensive gameplan rather than what felt like a rehash of Gareth Southgate’s customarily effective qualification matches. For now, however, there were still a few notable adjustments and tweaks to take away from the win.

1. England bring the energy early

A ball hasn’t even been kicked and you can already see one facet of England taking on the Premier League identity that Thomas Tuchel wants to imbue them with. Kane and Bellingham, two prime exports to the continent, line up on halfway, just on the edge of the circle. Before a ball has been kicked the latter false starts, zooming into the Albania half and forcing Alejandro Hernandez to start over. The next time Bellingham got out of the blocks at the right moment and within a few seconds England had forced Albania to turn their first spell of possession into a hoof upfield.

If the in-possession tweaks were a little more subtle in the early exchanges — there is only so much that can be done when attacking a low block but England at least did that with greater zip — what was more notable was how Tuchel’s men chased after the ball on every turnover. Inside the first quarter of an hour Declan Rice had crashed upfield to block an attempted clearance, the ball not quite landing in Kane’s path, and Phil Foden had nearly revived a dangerous move down the right flank with a full-throttle sliding tackle. Even Kane, who hasn’t had the legs for a high press for the last five years now, worked to close down passing lanes.

This is perhaps the most pronounced early adjustment from Southgate’s England. Come tournaments in particular they were all too prepared to drop into their defensive banks, understandably given that they consistently motored into the latter stages by giving up half an expected goal a game. Such an approach had its advantages, but it also meant that the opposition had time to set their rest defense before possession returned to England. Hence the many agonizing group games against supposedly inferior opposition where the ball seemed to move through the middle third of the field at six frames per second. At their best, early on, the energy that England brought out of possession couldn’t help but bleed into their ball playing.

“I was quite happy with the start and the structure, especially to control the counter attacks,” Tuchel said of the off-ball work. “We were structured, we tried to find the gaps.”

Ninety minutes was not necessarily enough to expunge England of some of their more sedate habits and tiring legs in the second half meant Albania had more opportunities to look up and pick a pass. But for excellent last man defending by Ezri Konsa, an equalizer could well have presented itself. It is also worth questioning from the very outset how England will look at the 60 minute mark on the kind sticky summer night in Miami or Mexico City they might face in the 2026 World Cup, if they start out with anything like the intensity they did tonight. That’s a matter for the next five camps. This one was about setting a tone, bringing a bit more of the domestic style to the English game. Tuchel’s charges started in the right fashion.

2. Bellingham shines, but clock is ticking on Foden

In possession there certainly were encouraging signs for Tuchel. Curtis Jones and Rice set a stable platform around which Bellingham could do as he saw fit. And if any midfielder has earned the right to roam it is one who in successive seasons at Real Madrid has proven himself to be as effective without the ball as with it.

On Friday, Bellingham was more progressor and creator than the disruptor he has often been at club level. When the opportunity came to drop deep he would look to spray the ball out to the flanks or to carry it forward and into the teeth of the Albanian defense. England needed more of that, as Tuchel noted in his post-match press conference, particularly when it ended with a pass that bisected two defensive lines and left Lewis-Skelly with the game’s best chance.

The same dynamism did not come on the flanks. For Foden in particular this was another game that passed him by. Out of possession his diligence could not be faulted, and there were moments of nice interplay with Jones. There were also no shots, no chances created and two touches in the penalty area, four fewer than anyone else who started in the front four.

Neither Foden nor Marcus Rashford escaped a robust assessment by Tuchel. “Both of our wingers were not as impactful as they normally can be, as they are in club football.” On Foden in particular he had said, “We will encourage him to do what he does best, to go with defenders, to go into dribbling as we played him today from the right wing.”

Evidently this is a talent that has merited patience from the England setup, but Foden is now 43 caps in. Across how many of them can he be said to have produced a game that even approximated his baseline performances in a Manchester City shirt? Come the summer Bukayo Saka will have a chance to reaffirm his excellence with Foden and Cole Palmer away at the Club World Cup.

If the Arsenal forward locks that spot up and Bellingham continues this bright start, the only spot left will be on a left flank where Foden so struggled at the Euros (and where England started with Rashford seemingly instructed to stay high and wide).

Tuchel saw enough last summer to know of the then Player of the Year’s struggles in that spot. Time may be running out for Foden to prove he is worth accommodating. 

3. Problem position? Solved

Just when you thought England were going to have a problem at left back yet again — the position where only Ashley Cole and Luke Shaw have really excelled this century — they appear to have landed on a rather special prospect indeed. The youngest to ever score on his England debut, Lewis-Skelly took to Wembley with the same ease and authority that has characterized his breakthrough at club level. It is less than six months since Erling Haaland was asking the Arsenal academy graduate who he was, in altogether more agricultural terms. 

He, and the rest of the English game, have quickly cottoned on. In the time since the bust up that brought the curtain down on his Premier League debut, Lewis-Skelly has potentially overhauled an Italian international and a serial Premier League winner (among others) to perhaps become Arsenal’s first choice left back. He has clapped back at Haaland in memorable fashion, come through weeks of media spotlight and earned himself a fast track into the England team. Not bad at all for a player who hadn’t played at left back before being thrust into the position by Mikel Arteta during preseason. 

“He is fearless,” said Lewis-Skelly’s Arsenal team mate Declan Rice. “He does everything right off the pitch, and he is only 18. I knew he was going to play like that tonight because of the confidence he has. He has kept his feet on the ground and it is only the start for him.”

That undoubtedly seems to be the case. And early though it is for anyone to be tying an 18 year old to one position on the pitch, there is an extremely compelling argument for both Arsenal and England letting Lewis-Skelly roll at left back. After all, he can meaningfully impact the game in so many facets from that spot on the pitch. In the minutes leading up to that run in behind for the goal, Lewis-Skelly had set himself on the left of the back three in build up, had bombed beyond Marcus Rashford in pure wing-back fashion and joined the frontline as an inside forward. No wonder Albania didn’t see the danger coming.

When Tuchel wanted to add an extra body high up the pitch in possession it was to Lewis-Skelly he turned, the teenager moving up to be an eight “because we wanted to take more risks and get closer to players.” From a left back berth, England got themselves a defensive midfield, a ball progressor and a defender, all in one package. It already seems easy to envisage the ceaseless debate over whether both Tuchel and Arteta should restore Lewis-Skelly to his boyhood midfield role so that he can really impact the game, just as has been said about Trent Alexander-Arnold. And yet, the one thing this fearless youngster is doing on a consistent basis is really, really impacting the game in a positive way. Why would anyone want to change that?