Thomas Tuchel will be regretting his decision not to include Cole Palmer in his England World Cup squad following a disappointing goalless draw with Ghana, according to Jamie Carragher.
After last week’s emphatic win over Croatia, the Three Lions were hoping to book their place in the next round as group winners with a second consecutive victory.
Tuchel made two changes to his starting line-up with Djed Spence and Marc Guehi starting in place of John Stones and Nico O’Reilly.
While there was a marked improvement in defence, England struggled to open up their opponents who were organised and disciplined throughout.
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Tuchel rang the changes in the second half but it wasn’t until the closing stages that England threatned a breakthrough, most notably when O’Reilly hit the bar with a header and Harry Kane skied the rebound wildly over the crossbar.
Inevitably, much of the post-match discourse centered on the absences of the creative playmakers who were unable to force their way into Tuchel’s plans, chiefly Palmer.
Speaking at half-time, Jamie Carragher told The Telegraph: ‘When Bellingham and Rice play between the lines against a defence set-up like this, you either need a bit of magic from them outside the box, or the wingers to deliver far more than they are currently doing.
Why Cole Palmer isn’t in the England squad
The Chelsea star’s omission from the England squad was undoubtedly the biggest shock of all and would have been unthinkable a year ago.
Tuchel has instead elected to go with Jude Bellingham, Morgan Rogers and Eberechi Eze as his options in the No10 role, whilst Noni Madueke has been preferred as Bukayo Saka’s understudy on the right wing.
xplaining his decision to leave Palmer behind, Tuchel said: ‘I think he suffers from a lack of individual form within his club.
‘He was not as decisive or as influential as he was in the last seasons, throughout the whole season. Second of all, he was not very influential with us. His record with us was just not outstanding, not good enough to make him ‘no matter what, he is coming’.
‘That is just the reality of it. He had to pull out injured several times, when he was in camp he did not have the impact that we all wanted to push him for.
‘I can find a lot of arguments to have him in the squad. I respect his quality and his very unique personality, he was never a problem in camp, I think his personality helps him, even in big moments, to not show nerves, and to be decisive.
‘But to have these moments you need also to be in shape, you need to be influential within this group and he has just failed to prove it, on a consistent level. It was one of the most difficult phone calls and obviously one of the most prominent names that we leave out, but I refuse to bring players for the name and I refuse to then play them out of position just to give them something.
‘It is a very difficult and a very hard decision. There is no question about his talent, there is no question what he can give you in special moments, but the decision was still against him.’
‘That’s England’s problem here. The longer this goes on, the more we must look to the bench and ask who can come on and make a difference?
‘Rice and Bellingham are all about power and energy; they aren’t magicians in the spaces between the lines.
‘If this continues, the debate will start regarding Cole Palmer’s absence. We’ve seen so many games like this in major tournaments.
‘Those who championed Palmer’s inclusion foresaw tactical conundrums like this – which is why some of us thought it better to have him as an option.’
A point still leaves England strong favourites to top Group L with Panama up next. Although there is no need to panic at this stage, Carragher admitted Tuchel and his players had been handed a much needed reality check.
He said: ‘Back down to earth for England. It’s a disappointing performance, but the bigger picture is that the two most difficult games are out of the way.
‘It’s actually a decent point because Ghana were unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty. With Panama to come, England are 99 percent certain to win the group.
‘There was probably too much euphoria after the first game.
‘We need to be careful not to go too overboard with criticism for this result, even though there are issues to resolve moving forward.’