The man Thomas Tuchel had omitted in October came on, for his international comeback, to make a point and in some style. Not Jude Bellingham. Or not just Bellingham, anyway. In a 2-0 victory that could be attributed to Tuchel, his words leading to the opener, his deeds to the clincher, Phil Foden may have provided Tuchel with an answer to the conundrum of the surfeit of No 10s. Eberechi Eze, too.
They could not all go to the World Cup, Tuchel had suggested. But if Foden had looked potentially vulnerable, the man who could be squeezed out, a player used on the left in Euro 2024 had a new guise: as Harry Kane’s understudy. Foden was used in attack, winning his first cap since March. Eze was introduced on the left wing, scored and thrust himself into a different debate. In a quadruple change, Bellingham was brought on in his preferred position and looked an upgrade on the starter Morgan Rogers. But that may not have been the revelation of the night. Foden, arguably, was. “Phil can make any team better in an offensive position,” said Tuchel.
“The smile is back,” Foden added. “I was happy to come on as a false nine kind of thing. Maybe that will get the best out of me.” The merits of using a flair player to lead the line were shown in two chances, each falling to Eze and coming from the same combination of players: Bellingham to Foden to Eze. For the first, with Foden supplying a lovely flick, Eze had a shot tipped on to the bar. For the second, he curled a shot imperiously into the top corner. Tuchel no longer considers Foden a winger, but he could be the striking alternative. Eze, however, may be his kind of wide man.
And the greatest significance of a largely forgettable night may be in the memories Tuchel takes of it. Those reading the World Cup runes were given much to ponder. Marcus Rashford, who was taken off for Eze, was a case in point. The Barcelona loanee was not poor: he twice directed a shot at Predrag Rajkovic and produced a lovely nutmeg to fool Nikola Milenkovic. But if the initial question was whether he has dislodged Anthony Gordon from Tuchel’s preferred team, he may end up being leapfrogged by Eze.
And Tuchel will be paid in part for his leftfield thinking. Behind Rashford, Nico O’Reilly’s swift rise was capped by a debut. “It was a very special night,” he said. “I am over the moon.” The Manchester City man hit the post, but with a deflected cross, got forward energetically and reasonably effectively and slotted in well. Left-back remains a position that is up for grabs. O’Reilly did his cause no harm.
He played a part in the opening goal, too, even if his contribution could scarcely be called an assist. The newcomer’s shot was blocked and looped up for Bukayo Saka, whose opportunistic strike was volleyed in with precision and technique. It was, he thought, one of his two best goals for England. In the context of both the move and the match, it came out of nothing. England had barely threatened, with 18 minutes elapsing before their first shot of note, which came from Saka but went wide.
Before Tuchel’s impact substitutes, Saka was an impact starter, a sign his pointed comments had found the desired audience. A manager who pronounced himself surprised that Bukayo Saka had only scored 13 goals for England got his preferred response. Now Saka has 14.
That Saka had agreed with Tuchel’s observation was telling. Criticism can be constructive and, in this instance, it was taken in the right way. It is harder to make the same claim when Tuchel had said his mother found Bellingham “repulsive” – a remark for which the England manager apologised – but as the Real Madrid man made his first international appearance since that strange summer saga, it was with a policy of gradual reintegration. “It would be unfair for Jude to try figure everything out because we changed our way of pressing in the last two camps,” Tuchel explained. But Rogers, excellent in September and October, was underwhelming on the ball. Bellingham looked a class above him.
They, Tuchel rationalised, are friends. Saka and Eze are colleagues at club level. When the latter struck, it was Arsenal 2 Serbia 0. England’s trip to the World Cup was already booked, aided by their 5-0 win in Belgrade in September, and they retain their 100 per cent record in qualifying. Serbia will not be joining them: passive for too long, they belatedly stirred. Jordan Pickford, who has not conceded for England for over a year, made a fine save from Filip Kostic. Dusan Vlahovic improvised a flick wide. But Serbia will spend a summer at home. England will cross the Atlantic, and it looks likelier they will take Foden and Eze with them.
