The Three Lions made hard work seeing off Andorra and the coach was fooling no one when claiming to be satisfied with what he saw.
England took a big step towards finding the answer to one problem during their 2-0 win over Andorra: they look to have stumbled upon their ideal holding midfielder in Elliot Anderson. They are no closer, however, to solving an even bigger issue: Thomas Tuchel's side are awfully dull to watch and can barely get past the most limited of opponents.
Anderson made his senior debut in Saturday's World Cup qualifier but he looked like he had been patrolling England's midfield for years. He broke up Andorra's play with ease and quickly distributed the ball down the pitch, giving the team a sense of confidence and urgency that they had lacked when they last faced Andorra three months ago.
"Very good, very, very good," was Tuchel's assessment of the debutant's display. "He was a bit nervous this week but then did good, and we said let's try it, and he did it. That was the test and I think he passed the test. Why should he not play in Serbia?" Reece James, meanwhile, called Anderson "a phenomenal player" who "fully deserves to be here" and said he should have been called up to the senior team sooner.
But for all the positivity about Anderson, who has jumped to the front of the queue to partner Declan Rice in midfield at the 2026 World Cup, there was little else to get excited about from England's performance. The Three Lions could not turn their utter dominance into many clear-cut chances, much less score many goals. The rotating cast of attackers failed to sparkle, wasting their opportunity in the limelight due to injuries to the team's biggest names.
And the man who has the most to answer after another dreary performance is Tuchel himself. The German was hired by the FA to take England to the next level amid complaints that the team had become too cautious under Gareth Southgate. But instead of injecting more excitement into the team, he appears to be draining it.
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Getty Images SportWINNER: Elliot Anderson
The Nottingham Forest midfielder had been knocking on Tuchel's door throughout last season and when he finally got his chance he sure made the most of it. Anderson repeatedly shuttled the ball from defence into attack, helping them move the ball about quickly and it was from one such move that England found their opening goal.
The midfielder did everything asked of his temporary role as a No. 6 but couldn't help from playing like the No. 8 he is most weeks for his club. He showed more attacking ambition in the second half, getting into an excellent shooting position and he really should have done better from Harry Kane's cut-back.
This might have been a bleak performance overall from England but Anderson's display was good news for Tuchel, as well as for Rice and Jude Bellingham. Anderson's solid work deep down the pitch gave Rice the freedom to get forward while his display also bodes well for the injured Real Madrid ace, who wants to play as the No. 10 but has often been tasked with running the engine room owing to a lack of convincing alternatives.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportLOSER: Thomas Tuchel
The coach claimed that he "liked the performance", which he described as "good" and "solid" against a low-block. But he was fooling no-one. On the sidelines Tuchel had looked unimpressed with what he saw, cursing his team's wastefulness. At other times he just looked bored, sitting on a Lucozade box.
A 2-0 win at home in front of an extremely quiet crowd can be forgiven against a respectable side that is also hoping to qualify for the World Cup. It is harder to excuse when the team you have just toiled to beat is ranked 174th in the world, has only won seven competitive matches in its history and can draw on just 80,000 people, the equivalent population of Scunthorpe.
There was another inconvenient truth: England should be used to facing 'low blocks' by now and they are going to meet many more stubbornly defensive teams between now and next summer. Any team that they come up against at the World Cup is going to have much more quality than Andorra and they will also be skilled at counter-attacking, a weapon the visitors barely managed to unsheath during the game. This was also Tuchel's fifth game with England and there is little indication that his team are getting to grips with his methods or playing with any sense of swagger.
GettyWINNER: Reece James
Tuchel's decision to drop both Kyle Walker and Trent Alexander-Arnold was the equivalent to advertising a new permanent vacancy for the role of England right-back. And Reece James got his application in early and showed himself to be the truly outstanding candidate for the job.
James was one of Tuchel's most valuable players during his brief but glorious spell in charge of Chelsea and he showed that he can play just as important a role for him for England. Andorra's low-block made James play like the wing-back he was for Tuchel at Stamford Bridge and all of England's best spells in this otherwise lacklustre spell came from his right channel.
James was inches away from breaking the deadlock in the first half and just as England were huffing and puffing with no reward in the second half, it was his postage-stamp delivery to Rice which gave them their second goal. With Walker's international career all but over and Alexander-Arnold's defensive weaknesses still plaguing him, James should have the right-back position locked down for the World Cup. And after a display like this the only thing holding him back is his worrying injury history.
Getty Images SportLOSER: Harry Kane
Tuchel had explained before the game that Kane was going to start because there was no room for experiments, even against a team as lowly-ranked as Andorra. England's captain and all-time top scorer – who had struck the only goal against the minnows in June – should have been licking his lips at the prospect of facing Andorra at home and adding at least a couple more goals to his tally of 73.
But he saw very little goalmouth action and the most noticeable thing he did all day was to lead the team on a lap of honour of the pitch at full-time, although most of the fans had already poured out of the stadium.
Kane was crowded out by the three centre-backs in Andorra's five-man defence and had just one effort on goal in the 90 minutes. His attempts to drop back and influence the game from deeper did not go to plan either, even if he should have got an assist when he teed up Anderson.
