Thomas Tuchel brought on Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Morgan Rogers, and Marcus Rashford in a bid to break through Ghana’s defence, but didn’t turn to out-and-out strikers Ivan Toney or Ollie Watkins.
Ghana frustrated England in the World Cup clash on Tuesday evening, with Tuchel’s men unable to find any way through. Their Group L opponents played an incredibly low block and with aggression. More than once did the likes of Elliott Anderson and Jude Bellingham find themselves on the deck.
The constant stop-start nature of the game meant England never found any real momentum. Tuchel turned to his plethora of attacking talent hoping for a change of luck but neither one of his strikers found the pitch.
Opting to keep Harry Kane on for the full 90 minutes, instead of throwing on Toney or Watkins, Tuchel said it wasn’t even a consideration to take him off.
“Change Harry Kane in a game that is stuck and 0-0?!” he said. “Taking Harry off, no?”
Elaborating further on his goalscorer, he said, “Everyone is pushing and I think we had three different goalscorers in the first match and to rely on Harry is just a natural thing because he loves responsibility and he takes it.
“He was not involved as much as we like to, it was just so, so narrow. Our two central defenders were responsible for the build up and then it was basically eight against 10. It was difficult to find space.
View 2 ImagesIt was a tough day for Harry Kane
“The little moments that he had was just unlucky and the last one is normally a clear goal and that would have got us a deserved win.
“We rely on Harry because we can, because he’s our forward, but we don’t over rely on him.”
Neither centre-forward came on against Croatia, either, though the dynamic of that game was somewhat different.
Panama may present an opportunity for Tuchel to change things, but he insists he’s not thought of that yet.
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“I have no idea. Panama is in four days,” he said bluntly.