England’s creaky defence is a World Cup worry and they need Rice back firing | Jacob Steinberg

Does anyone know what happened to the low block? After all the talk about the challenges of breaking down a grim back seven, the bigger worry for Thomas Tuchel in New Jersey was Panama’s lack of fear. There was no sign of the underdogs borrowing from the Carlos Queiroz playbook against an anxious England, who are starting to give off the distinct whiff of a team whose World Cup is destined to end in a calamity of some sort in the knockouts. Make no mistake: England will be going home if they continue to defend like this against anyone with a functioning attack. Tuchel will not be fooled. Although his team secured top spot in Group L by wearing down Panama in the end , an achievement mainly down to Jude Bellingham again stepping up with two moments of class after a skittish first half, England were far from convincing and spent long spells demonstrating that anyone who thought an unusually gung-ho lineup would provide a vision of a post-Declan Rice world was sorely mistaken. Tuchel’s reaction to the Ghana stalemate was to frontload the attack, to leave Elliot Anderson as the only shield in front of a panicked back four. It felt light and breezy before kick-off. The big question was whether Tuchel had taken inspiration from Lee Carsley. …