Jude Bellingham wears No 10, and Jude Bellingham has the star power of a No 10, and Jude Bellingham was listed as a No 10 on the pre-match teamsheets in England’s 4-2-3-1 formation against Croatia.But Jude Bellingham isn’t really a No 10. And Thomas Tuchel knows it.The pre-tournament debate about whether Bellingham or Morgan Rogers should start behind Harry Kane was partly, it seems, about character. But it was also about precisely what Tuchel wants from a player in that position.The England head coach has a clear preference out wide: a direct dribbler rather than a drifting playmaker. And this is partly because the challenge for Tuchel isn’t really about providing Kane with service, but about providing legs so Kane can feed those players. Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon are in the category of ‘willing runners’ rather than particularly effective creators.Bellingham falls into that category. Since joining Real Madrid three years ago, he’s performed well in two different roles. There was initially the prolific half-season when he essentially found himself as the replacement for Karim Benzema, less of a No 10 and not even a false No 9, and more just Real Madrid’s focal point. The 22-year-old’s role has changed since the arrival of Kylian Mbappe in 2024, and he’s often proved effective when using his physicality in a deeper midfield role.But the actual classic No 10 things? Receiving the ball between the lines on the half-turn? Providing creative genius? That’s not really Bellingham. That’s Rogers. So, with Bellingham, England play a certain way. His touch map tells the story — he’s either deep, or he’s in the box. He’s never really in classic No 10 positions.Kane, of course, dropped deep. This was the main talking point after every group game at the 2024 European Championship, despite Kane having played this way for several years. But England had runners going the other way.Within five minutes, Kane played a ball in behind for Gordon. After 15 minutes, he played his classic around-the-corner ball for Madueke. And, after 20 minutes, the Bayern Munich striker received the ball to feet, held it up for a second and then waited for the run of Bellingham, who dribbled half the pitch and found himself in front of goal.This was Bellingham’s task — almost the role Dele Alli briefly played so effectively off Kane at Tottenham Hotspur. Half an hour in, he made a lung-busting run into the box and couldn’t quite convert Madueke’s ball across the face of goal.His other notable contributions were in deeper positions. Yes, he conceded possession in the lead-up to Croatia’s first goal, but he also made a crucial last-ditch challenge to deny Petar Musa an equaliser at 1-0 up. In fact, combine that with Kane’s late block with his midriff, and England’s two most crucial pieces of defensive play came from their front two.And that’s what it is: a proper front two. Kane barely runs in behind these days, and Bellingham is the driving force.“You can rely on him in these moments,” Tuchel said of Bellingham after England’s 4-2 win. “He loves these pressure games — it brings out the best in him. The decision to let him play and trust him was because (of) the last 16-17 days, how he bought into the idea of team spirit and how we wanted to play football. It’s different from his position in Real Madrid.Hey JudeDavid Ornstein“It was tough to say to Morgan he wasn’t going to start, because he 100 per cent deserves to start. Jude was reliable, and did his best to be a top team player for us.”The most memorable moment came just after half-time, when Bellingham put England ahead with a burst into the right-hand channel and a low finish in off the far post.“The goal in the 46th minute was the decisive one,” said Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic. “We managed to come back two times, the third time we couldn’t.”It was interesting that when Tuchel made a treble change in the second-half hydration break, bringing on the three players — Rogers, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka — that you would expect to replace the attacking trio behind Kane, he withdrew Declan Rice rather than Bellingham. This was, you suspect, for fitness reasons rather than a reflection of Rice’s performance, but Tuchel could easily have brought on Jordan Henderson, presumably included in the squad for purposes like this.England’s ‘proper front two’, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, celebrate England’s third goal (Francois Nel/Getty Images)Instead, he moved Bellingham deep alongside Elliot Anderson. When Bellingham himself was taken off later on, Tuchel surprisingly brought on Djed Spence to play right-back, with Reece James moving into the central midfield role in which he excelled for Chelsea in the first half of last season. The players initially seemed confused by this tweak, and it meant Anderson had three different midfield partners in the second half.It would be untrue to say Bellingham has made himself undroppable after this performance, because the nature of this competition means rotation in the group stage is highly likely. England have started the tournament later than any other favourites, and if they go deep in the competition their schedule will be more congested. It’s not arrogant for Tuchel to be thinking about knockout stage fitness before England have mathematically qualified. It’s a necessity.But Bellingham underlined what he’s all about with this performance: a runner in behind, or a deep midfielder who gets stuck in. At full time, Dallas Stadium blasted out Three Lions, which produced a mass singalong. And then it blasted out Hey Jude, and the singing became louder.