Tuchel still searching for answers out wide - Shearer
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- Thomas Tuchel has used 9 different full-back and winger combinations involving 8 players across 270 minutes of group football, with Shearer noting England still lack a settled side after topping their group.
- Alan Shearer identified England's reliable "spine" as Elliot Anderson, Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, Jordan Pickford and Declan Rice, while warning the team is still leaning on individual brilliance rather than a coherent system for chance creation.
- Jude Bellingham turned in Bukayo Saka's corner against Panama to break a deadlock after England had struggled to threaten from open play, a moment Shearer credited to the midfielder's "strength, balance and skill" rather than the quality of the cross.
- Shearer argued that wingers cutting inside for inswinging crosses — Rashford with his right foot from the left, Saka from the right — are easier for defenders to clear, preferring outswinging deliveries like the one Bellingham produced for Kane's goal.
- England's defence has been opened up in all three group games, conceding twice in a poor first half against Croatia and looking "uncomfortable" and "shaky" against Ghana and Panama, with Shearer calling defensive stability his biggest concern.
- Injuries to Reece James and Jarell Quansah at right-back, plus Bukayo Saka not being fully fit, have forced much of the reshuffling, with Tuchel now weighing a likely new back four against DR Congo featuring Djed Spence or Ezri Konsa at right-back and potentially John Stones alongside Marc Guehi.
Why it matters: With knockout football against DR Congo in Atlanta on Wednesday — and a likely round-of-16 opponent of Mexico or Ecuador — Tuchel must finally settle on a back four after three group games in which England were opened up defensively every time out, and pick wide combinations that produce a consistent threat from open play rather than relying on set-piece heroics.
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