NEW JERSEY — As England toiled in Boston, the temptation was to ask whether Thomas Tuchel had erred for tourists over talent.
Ghana were doughty but defensive and as Tuchel wheeled out his much-vaunted “finishers” to try and turn the game, you couldn’t help but feel they lacked a soloist in the squad. Phil Foden and Cole Palmer might have been well below-par this season, but they remain capable of igniting a spark in a nothing game.
Could you say the same of Jordan Henderson, one of five outfield players yet to play a minute in this World Cup? Even in his pomp the Brentford midfielder was not that guy. He was Liverpool’s talisman when Jurgen Klopp had them playing the sort of rock and roll football that made opposition ears bleed, but he was a conductor, not the man crunching the guitars at the front of the stage.
Put that point to Tuchel, though, and expect to get short shrift. England might have stumbled against Ghana but there is nearly a month to go before the final in New Jersey, which is when he hopes this campaign will be judged.
Henderson has been driving standards on the training pitch (Photo: Getty)
