Thomas Tuchel urges England to improve defence against Ghana after ‘wake-up call’

Thomas Tuchel believes England were given a wake-up call by Croatia and must focus on improving their defensive structure as the World Cup progresses. England will qualify for the knockout stages from Group L with a game to spare if they beat Ghana in Boston on Tuesday night, and will top the group if Panama then fail to beat Croatia in the later game, but Tuchel is determined not to take ­anything for granted. The head coach has placed a heavy emphasis on aggressive football and has said his side were too quick to fall back during the first half of the 4-2 win over Croatia . Tuchel, who regained momentum with a stirring half-time team talk at Dallas Stadium, gave an in‑depth assessment of where his side went wrong during a chaotic opening period. The German felt the shape was wrong before Croatia scored their second equaliser moments before half time. “We need to do things ­better,” he said. “Defensively we dropped a little too deep from a middle block into a low block and deep block, which is in itself not a problem, but we went a bit too early. We were a bit too man-man focused and didn’t rely enough on our structure to be able to push out again. “If you just look at our goal that we conceded we played a back seven formation, which is just not us. Maybe it is good that we conceded, because it just tells us: ‘Let’s not do this again.’ It makes no sense, it’s not us, it doesn’t play to our strengths. …