MIAMI — Thomas Tuchel always felt himself a little bit English. Well, he is one of us now, anglicised by the match trying to fathom how the players he sees at our clubs become mysteriously something other in an England shirt.
Tuchel, the great German technician brought to the post to make us less English in the later stages of major tournaments, ends up just as grateful as his predecessors for the indomitable spirit that binds us.
Tuchel will be loved forever for the honesty and candour of his post-match rant bemoaning the lack of quality and method that left his team so close to disaster against Norway.
But that will not save him should his own mistakes continue to work against the good in his team. The problem he faces in Atlanta is not so much working out how to blunt Lionel Messi and Argentina but how to unlock his own side and maintain his alliance with Jude Bellingham.
Like us, Tuchel is thankful for the talismanic, super human, a player who simply refuses to shrink before the responsibility of leading this team. But there is clearly a tension from less happier days when Tuchel questioned his attitude and singular approach.
