England 2-1 Congo DR: What Tuchel Gets Right, What Still Needs to Change Before Mexico

[Jedi Stuart]

England are in the round of 16 and face Mexico at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on Monday July 6 at 1am BST. That is the practical fact. The rest of the conversation involves a tension between the gratitude of not being out and the honest assessment of what the Mexico game requires that the Congo DR game did not provide.

What Tuchel got right: the substitutions. Bringing Gordon on and giving England a different profile of wide player who can deliver from a different angle was the decision that produced both goals. Keeping Rice and Bellingham together in midfield despite the anxiety on the terraces gave England the engine to keep pressing and eventually wear Congo DR down. The decision to trust the process despite 74 goalless minutes showed a head coach who was not panicking.

What still needs to change: the first-hour performance against any team better than Congo DR will cost England the tournament. The inability to break down a deep defensive block for 74 minutes against a team ranked 38th in possession in the group stage is not a small concern. Mexico, who have held four consecutive opponents scoreless in this tournament and ended a 40-year knockout curse last night, are organised, physically capable and playing with enormous confidence and crowd support. The Azteca at night against a Mexico side that has just been liberated from its defining national football curse is a different proposition from Atlanta against a team in their first-ever World Cup knockout game.

The 8 + 20 statistic from OptaJoe is the clearest summary of the problem: all eight of England's shots and all 20 of their touches in the opposition box in the first half came after the hydration break, suggesting England needed a technical stoppage to reorganise and press effectively. That is not a sustainable tournament performance pattern.

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