England's Dull Display Against Latvia Shows Tuchel's Quest for Excitement Won't Be Easy
Thomas Tuchel's vision of an exciting, thrilling England team has quickly hit a familiar roadblock: the reality of international qualifying matches. Despite a comfortable 3-0 victory over Latvia, ranked 140th in the world, England's performance revealed that transforming the Three Lions won't be an overnight process.
The new England boss has been openly critical of Gareth Southgate's Euro 2024 campaign, claiming it "lacked intensity, identity and hunger." However, Monday's match at Wembley bore striking similarities to many qualifying fixtures under the previous regime – pedestrian build-up play, struggles to break down determined but limited opposition, and an air of tedium that prompted fans to launch paper airplanes (the first hitting the pitch after just 14 minutes) and start Mexican waves before departing early.
"This was more of the same labouring old England seen so often under Southgate," as England once again "struggled for long periods to make the most of their superiority, too often pedestrian and too often failing to transform good positions into goals."
The match followed a familiar pattern, with Reece James finally breaking the deadlock seven minutes before halftime with a superb free-kick – his first international start since September 2022 proving fruitful. After the break, Latvia barely ventured out of their half, allowing Harry Kane to tap in his 71st international goal in the 68th minute before substitute Eberechi Eze added a third with a deflected shot eight minutes later.
These performances aren't a criticism of Tuchel specifically, whose tenure is still in its earliest stages. Rather, they highlight that "providing the sort of thrill ride the German coach wants to serve up for England fans is easier said than done in these types of games with this team, and there is no quick fix to change that."
The statistics tell the story of England's dominance without the corresponding excitement: 73.5% possession, 569 successful passes in Latvia's half (compared to the visitors' mere 26 in England's), 36 crosses, and 69 touches in the opposition box – more than double the 34 recorded against Albania on Friday. Yet despite these overwhelming numbers, the performance remained "deadly dull" for long stretches.
There were some bright spots beyond the scoreline. Jude Bellingham, despite a reckless second-half challenge that could have seen him sent off, remains "a generational talent." Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly demonstrated he "is a natural at this level," while fellow Gunner Ethan Nwaneri excelled in a goalscoring performance for England Under-21s at The Hawthorns. The eventual return of Bukayo Saka will offer "an added attacking dimension."
Kane's goal also displayed the kind of play Tuchel wants to see more of, with "Declan Rice accelerating into the Latvia area, collecting Morgan Rogers' pass and drilling a ball across the face of the six-yard box which left his captain with a simple finish."
The reality is that Tuchel has set himself a challenging standard by criticizing his predecessor and promising change. England's true test won't come during qualifying, which "should be a formality from a group that also contains Andorra and Serbia," but at the 2026 World Cup itself – continuing a familiar cycle where England impress in qualifiers but struggle against higher-quality opposition in tournaments.
Tuchel's challenge now is to find what Phil McNulty calls "the 'X Factor', the missing ingredient, to get England's men over the line they have failed to cross since the 1966 World Cup." With two expected wins from his first two games, the German coach "will have plenty to exercise his mind between now and the next international camp in June" as he works to deliver the exciting England team he has promised.
