Alan Shearer has put his finger on the thing England fans have been quietly worrying about since the tournament began: Thomas Tuchel still hasn't found his best wide players. Writing in his BBC Sport column, the former England captain identified the flanks as the one area where Tuchel's setup lacks clarity — and at a World Cup, that kind of uncertainty has a habit of becoming expensive.
Shearer's column doesn't arrive in a vacuum. England's wide positions have been a revolving door for years — through Gareth Southgate's tenure, through the Euros cycles, and now into a World Cup where Tuchel was supposed to bring some German tactical rigour to the question. According to Shearer's analysis for BBC Sport, that answer hasn't arrived yet.
The concern isn't the centre of the pitch. Tuchel has positives to work with — Shearer acknowledges that much. But wide areas are where games at this level get won and lost on the counter, where a settled partnership gives a team its width and its threat in transition. Without one, England can become predictable.
Club football gives managers weeks to tinker. A World Cup gives you days between games and no margin for a slow-burn experiment. If Tuchel is still rotating wide options at this stage of the tournament, the clock is working against him — knockout football doesn't wait for a player to find form.
Shearer has been there. He knows what it feels like when a squad arrives at a tournament with questions that should have been answered in qualifying. The fact that he's flagging this now, mid-tournament, suggests it's not a minor footnote.
The solution might already be in the squad — it usually is. Tuchel is not a manager who lacks ideas wide. His club work has consistently featured overlapping fullbacks and inverted wingers used in combination, which means the system can theoretically accommodate different profiles. The question is whether the right players are clicking within it.
Shearer's column is one man's read, and a single opinion piece doesn't make a crisis. But when the man writing it captained England and has forgotten more about international football than most pundits have ever known, it's worth taking seriously. Tuchel will know the wide picture needs to sharpen — and fast.
He's had the same thought. You can tell.
Alan Shearer has put his finger on the thing England fans have been quietly worrying about since the tournament began: Thomas Tuchel still hasn't found his best wide players.
Lähteet
BBC Sport — Football
Flagsiden jutut ovat omaperäisiä, monista lähteistä syntetisoituja kirjoituksia. Mainitsemme jokaisen median, joka ruokki juttua.
Yön otteluiden poiminta, mitä siirtoikkunassa tapahtuu, ja yksi kolumni, josta toimituksen pöytä väitteli. Ei mainoksia. Ei vinkkejä. Ei operaattoreita.
Yksi klikkaus poistaa tilauksesta. Emme jaa sähköpostiosoitteita.
“Stays on World Cup — different angle, same beat.”
MAAJOUKKUEET⚠️ CẬP NHẬT: Thông tin chưa được xác nhận độc lập — Flagside đang theo dõi. Đúng lúc World Cup 2026 bước vào giai đoạn sinh tử, tuyển Anh lại phải đối mặt với điều mà không đội bóng nào muốn: một làn
“Stays on World Cup — different angle, same beat.”
MAAJOUKKUEET⚠️ CẬP NHẬT: Thông tin chưa được xác nhận độc lập — Flagside đang theo dõi. Đúng lúc World Cup 2026 bước vào giai đoạn sinh tử, tuyển Anh lại phải đối mặt với điều mà không đội bóng nào muốn: một làn
