England lost to Japan at Wembley. The team was without Harry Kane, Thomas Tuchel was not very active, and they were unable to beat teams ranked within the top 20 in the world.
Thomas Tuchel saw his England team lose for the first time at Wembley
At the send-off party at Wembley, it felt more like a tearful farewell.
The only good thing is that at least this time the World Cup isn’t around the corner. Otherwise England will be in real trouble. Thomas Tuchel brought back most of England’s main guns, but in practice he raised more questions than answers with a flat and disjointed performance.
It was also a timely reminder that England without Harry Kane looks mediocre, surly and toothless. Kane missed the final warm-up at Wembley with a foot injury, but England, without their talisman, leader and main goal threat, are not at their best.
There are 78 days between this game and England’s World Cup opener against Croatia on June 17th, and it will be a wake-up call and a brutal reality check rolled into one.
England have yet to beat a top-20 team under Tuchel, and the idea that England could conquer the world this summer seems a bit fanciful. Japan are 19th and England are 4th, but because they have been properly educated they failed to beat Uruguay last Friday and lost to Senegal last summer.
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When they play against a halfway decent opponent, they quickly fall short, and what’s even more worrying is that Croatia are 11th in the FIFA rankings. The problem was that England were just trying to cram as many of their best players into the same line-up and it looked horribly unbalanced.
This result showed that Phil Foden and Cole Palmer could probably not play in the same starting XI, and although England ended up with a number of No. 10s, none of them looked capable of playing like a real No. 9, let alone a fake one. Foden started as a false nine, but it was another frustrating night for the out-of-form Manchester City forward as he got carried away before the hour was up.
Kaoru Mitoma scored the only goal of the match.
Palmer was given roaming permission, Anthony Gordon was placed on the left wing, and Morgan Rogers started in the middle but then drifted to the right. However, they all got lost in the mayhem.
And lo and behold, England’s biggest chance early on came from a set piece by Palmer. Japan were unable to clear and England’s players lined up to take shots, but all were blocked. All this effort, all this talent, all this planning. And we rely on set pieces. You could feel the frustration of the Wembley crowd.
Japanese fans occupied a significant portion of the stadium as the quota was sold out with a capacity crowd. They helped create a real buzz and atmosphere – and soon they were getting even more cheers. It was Palmer who clumsily lost the ball, and Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma won the ball in midfield and played the ball wide to Keito Nakamura.
Japanese winger Nakamura had an embarrassing amount of space on England’s right flank and also responded to lopsided, unbalanced and ill-conceived formations.
England lacked sharpness in attack.
Where was the right side? There was no one on the right flank, leaving right-back Ben White helpless. It was a really bad night for White. Nakamura ran forward and passed the ball back to Mitoma who rushed into the box, who fired a low shot that hit Nico O’Reilly and into the bottom corner of the goal.
Elliott Anderson sent a shot over the crossbar as England tried to fight back but failed. However, Tuchel’s men looked vulnerable defensively. Ayasa Ueda’s shot hit the bar. Ritsu Doan’s shot was once again blocked by Jordan Pickford’s foot.
England went through significant changes and Marcus Rashford came on to change things up again, but even he couldn’t save Tuchel from defeat.
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