THOMAS TUCHEL might claim England are underdogs for the World Cup but he’s not kidding anyone.
Not if his team keeps playing like this.
Bukayo Saka scored the goal of the night as England bear Wales[/caption]
The 24-year-old netted a fantastic strike on his return from injury[/caption]
It is still a bit too early to start thinking about a victory parade in Trafalgar Square next July after the World Cup final.
But after sending every English football fan to sleep in his first five games as manager, and let’s not pretend that his team were not bloody awful, Tuchel has overseen a dramatic improvement with two ferocious, attacking performances.
A 5-0 battering of Serbia in a World Cup qualifier was followed by this win over Wales which was sealed with three goals in the opening 20 minutes.
While some fans were starting to dread next year’s World Cup, these last couple of games have at least given everyone a bit of hope, despite Tuchel’s attempts to dampen down expectations at his pre-match press conference by saying England will not be one of the favourites next summer.
Morgan Rogers scored his first England goal, Ollie Watkins, who later collided with a post, made it 2-0 and Bukayo Saka produced a stunning third.
The only Englishmen not smiling were Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish. If Tuchel remains stubborn, and he has this in his locker, the trio could now have a genuine battle to win back their places in the squad, let alone the first-team.
This was also a painful watch for the 7000 Welsh fans who were hoping for a first win here since 1977 and sang their national anthem with gusto. With their team suffering an embarrassing collapse with less than a quarter of the game gone, those fans soon lost their voices.
Equally, Monday’s home World Cup qualifier against Belgium is far more important. Get a recent result then and no-one will worry about this result but getting wiped out by England will not have done too much for the confidence of Craig Bellamy’s team.
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Wales will have been thankful that Harry Kane sat this one out. Although officially named as a substitute, he was never going to play as he is struggling with a foot injury.
But knowing we have been far too reliant on him, Kane was able to sit back and relax and watch his pals continue from where they left off in Belgrade last month.
Morgan Rogers scored his first senior England goal[/caption]
His Aston Villa team-mate, Ollie Watkins, also added to his Three Lions account[/caption]
Watkins suffered an injury scare after colliding with the post[/caption]
Tuchel celebrated each goal wildly. He will not care that the second half was a non event.
The former Chelsea manager passionately defended his squad selection, claiming the players who won 5-0 in Serbia had every right to retain their places which is why Bellingham, Foden and Grealish were not included.
Presumably England will swat away Latvia on Tuesday. So Tuchel will surely have to stick to his guns and keep the same players – barring injuries – for next month’s final qualifiers against Serbia and Albania.
Before the game, Tuchel gave a killer line, saying: “We don’t collect the most talented players, we build a team”.
Over these last two games, despite missing Bellingham, England have looked a proper team, even though Wales, like Serbia, were guilty of some really poor defending.
So, for Latvia on Tuesday and also next month, let’s keep Rogers as the no 10 behind Kane, when he returns. Let’s keep Anthony Gordon on the left. Let’s stick with Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson next to Declan Rice, who was captain for the evening.
Tuchel, for sure, will have loved the way his team started so aggressively.
At the age 35, Leeds keeper Karl Darlow finally got a chance to play at Wembley and after 80 seconds, he would have been quite pleased as stuck out a leg to keep out a shot from Gordon.
Yet Darlow’s hopes of keeping a clean sheet ended from Rice’s resulting corner. John Stones’ far post header was in danger of drifting out for a goal-kick but Marc Guehi was more alert than Ben Davies and played the ball back for Rogers who flicked a first-time shot past Darlow.
England seized on more poor defending when Wales failed on three occasions to clear another corner from Rice.
Neco Williams made a complete mess of trying to deal with Rogers’ pass across the goal and Watkins – who had an initial shot blocked from the Rice corner – could not miss.
And this simple chance was the complete opposite to the blockbuster third goal from Saka.
David Brooks was naive, or downright stupid, to stand off and let Saka get the ball on his left foot and from that moment, the Arsenal winger looked certain to send a shot arrowing into the top corner.
Yet the move would not have been possible but for a lovely, energetic raid down the left from Gordon, something we have not seen enough from England wingers recently.
Watkins should have made it 4-0 before half-time but hurt himself when hitting a post and was replaced by Marcus Rashford.
Rogers thumped a shot against the bar and Jordan Pickford ensured an eighth England successive clean sheet with a decent block from Brooks.
For Tuchel, it was a satisfying night. There are seven games before the start of the World Cup but maybe we are now seeing some progress after all.
Underdogs? You’re having a laugh.
Three things we learned from England v Wales
By Tom Barclay
WATKINS TAKES HIS CHANCE
OLLIE WATKINS seized a rare chance in the absence of Harry Kane, who was named among the subs but was never coming on.
The hero of the Euro 2024 semi-final struck his sixth goal for England when teed up by Aston Villa team-mate Morgan Rogers inside 11 minutes.
There were brief fears Watkins may have seriously injured himself when lunging for an Elliot Anderson cross.
But fortunately it was just a scare and he played on until half-time, when he was replaced by Marcus Rashford.
With very little in reserve behind Kane, it was comforting to see No1 understudy Watkins impress – particularly after his underwhelming start to the Premier League season.
ROGER THAT
MORGAN ROGERS was arguably the big winner of the night given, if everyone were fit and firing, he would be third, fourth or even fifth choice to start No10.
But after this impressive display, where he grabbed a goal, an assist and also struck the bar, the Villa man will be very much in Thomas Tuchel’s thinking going forward for the role.
Rogers will know that old mates Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer will still likely be ahead of him in the pecking order once they return to fitness.
Yet Phil Foden’s bid to reclaim his squad place is looking even tougher after Rogers’ exploits.
DJED’S WHAT’S LEFT
THOMAS TUCHEL still has a headache at left-back, but Djed Spence did not let him down there on his full England debut.
He kept club-mate Brennan Johnson quiet and got forward when he could, supplying one or two dangerous crosses, though he did pick up a yellow.
The former Middlesbrough man, 25, did his chances no harm amid form and fitness concerns over Lewis Hall, Tino Livramento, Luke Shaw and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
One thing in Spence’s favour too is he is a right-back by trade, and that is where he shifted over to for the final ten when Lewis-Skelly came on.
