"Why England Should Embrace the Challenge of Facing World Cup Giants Like Spain, Brazil, and Argentina in Thomas Tuchel's System"

YOU need players like Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane to be firing on all cylinders for England to do well at the World Cup.

Bellingham is looking very good and Harry is doing what Harry does.

Harry Kane scored yet another to become England’s World Cup top scorer Credit: Getty However Jude Bellingham was the standout performer Credit: PA

Jude was probably the best player against Panama, and drove them forward in the second half. Meanwhile Harry got a standard Harry Kane goal.

These players need to perform, of course they do, but you need others to step up as well.

And I feel Bukayo Saka is going to come into it now.

Against Panama those were his first proper minutes from the start, getting up to the rhythm of the game.

He is an incredible player and in the last few seasons has been nothing short of brilliant despite his injuries.

Saka is one of the more senior members of the team and he has to take games by the scruff of the neck like Jude and Harry do.

But I actually put it in my notes that he was playing almost as a wing-back which I don’t really get.

The wingers on both sides, with Marcus Rashford on the left, are drifting too far back for me.

Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford drifted too far back Credit: Shutterstock Editorial

I’ve seen it in the last two games against Ghana and Panama, defending more than what they should do.

When I was playing for England and I had my winger in front of me, I would always just say: “I’ll do the defending for you.”

I pride myself on defending, making sure that when my winger gets the ball he is as fresh as possible to go and attack the defenders.

So it requires a bit of communication between full back and winger.

But there’s been lot of changing around at right-back where we’ve had Reece James, Djed Spence and Jarrel Quansah playing there.

He’s also called up Trevoh Chalobah, who’s not a natural right back, and Quansah is having to shuffle over, and is not a natural right back, and prefers centre back.

Tuchel must have seen something in Quansah that it’s better for the dynamic of the team to use him and not call Trent Alexander Arnold up.

He’s the manager, he gets paid to make these decisions and he needs to make them right. Hopefully it’s a great call from him.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the role and, of course, Trent’s name crops up a lot.

He has been very unlucky to miss out on this World Cup.

He’s been in numerous tournaments and competitions and to play for a team like Real Madrid, you’ve got to be doing something right.

But the manager is doing what he feels is best for this England squad.

This team is built for counter-attacking with the pace that we’ve got up front and the engines that we’ve got in midfield.

When you think about Cole Palmer and Phil Foden, you’re wondering why are they not in the squad too?

But what Thomas has done is built the team around the pace on the wings and trying to get people up the pitch as quickly as possible.

Hopefully that comes to our benefit when we’re playing the bigger teams like the Spains, the Portuguese, the Brazils, the Argentinians, where we’re probably not going to have much of the ball.

They need to learn to play together quickly because if you’re losing, you go home.

We can’t just lean on certain players either, everyone needs to chip in.

Everyone needs to up it now another five or ten percent because the opponents are getting better.

We got off to a flyer against Croatia, then hit a little stumbling block with the draw in the Ghana game.

The Panama performance, though not brilliant, stepped it back up again. We topped the group and that was our main objective.

Knockout football is when it really matters. You can’t win a tournament in a group stage, but you can lose one by going out.

You put the shirt on with pride, it’s all about the badge, and playing with your heart on your sleeve.

But England are going to have to start playing their best football now.

Any game in this tournament is going to be a difficult one from here on.