England manager Thomas Tuchel has dismissed the notion that his team are too reliant on captain Harry Kane, after his team’s insipid display in their 0-0 draw against Ghana on Wednesday.
England toiled throughout the match, despite taking 19 shots and recording 78.8% possession, their highest in a World Cup match on record and the highest by any team when failing to score in tournament history (since 1966). Meanwhile, Ghana’s 2 attempts were the joint-fewest of any team at this summer’s competition thus far.
“To rely on Harry, it’s just a natural thing because he loves the responsibility and he takes it. He was not involved as much as we would like, but it was just so, so narrow. We rely on Harry because we can, because he’s our forward, but we don’t over-rely on him.”
England’s best chance of the day fell to Kane in the second half, but he somehow contrived to sky the ball over the crossbar despite the goal gaping six yards away. His 19 touches, meanwhile, were his fewest in a major tournament game for England while playing 90+ minutes (Euros/World Cup).
When asked if England relied too heavily on their skipper, Tuchel compared the situation to Argentina and France’s reliance on Lionel Messi or Kylian Mbappe.
“I mean, does Argentina rely too heavily on Messi and France rely too heavily on Mbappe? It’s just what it is, world-clss players and they normally do what they do.”
A win would have secured qualification to the knockout rounds for England, but they will now need a result against Panama on the final day to be certain. Tuchel, though, was keen to play down the significance of the dropped points.
“We don’t need a wake-up call. Everyone is alert and everyone is fully committed. There can be no doubt. I can assure that to everyone,” he said.
“It is very important that the highs don’t get too high and the lows do not get too low. And today is not a low, it was just a difficult match. It is what it is. But we have four points out of two matches and still a match to play.”
“The boys tried everything. They played with the right energy. I know it’s a very different game. There was no overconfidence in our game. Not at all. If there was anything, there was maybe in some moments a bit of over-cautiousness. It’s a long tournament.”
