BOSTON, Mass -- If Thomas Tuchel thought people in the pubs would enjoy England's 4-2 win over Croatia, then the 0-0 draw with Ghana would have had three consequences in the pubs back home: by full-time England fans would be turning to drink for soul-searching solace after this toothless showing, the pubs would already be half-empty as fans had given up on a late winner, or the third possible scenario would see a bunch of disgruntled England fans bemoaning a couple of the players Tuchel left behind.
Three full-time messages from different England fans in the stands read: "Awful performance," "waste of money coming all this way for that," and one other which didn't leave anything remotely legible if you took out the swear words.
Each had their own theory on why England didn't click against Ghana, but held a similar thread: England needed to attack the opposition more aggressively one-on-one, and they lacked that creative spark in the middle of the pitch.
Back in the win over Croatia, we saw a new England. One which threw caution to the wind, parked their defence on the halfway line, and played quick, vertical football which was thrilling and lethal in equal measure. The substitutes injected fresh impetus when they needed it, while the set pieces unnerved Croatia. All was well.
But against Ghana, we had to wait until the 56th minute for either side to muster a shot on target. That came from Anthony Gordon. Earlier, by the 35th minute in the first half, only two players had fewer touches of the ball than Harry Kane.
It just didn't click. England had their chances to snatch it near the end, their best chance where Nico O'Reilly's header found the crossbar, and Kane blazed the rebound high over the Ghana bar. This was more the drab Uruguay and Japan matches in March than it was the thrill of Croatia.
"It's a long tournament and the boys tried everything," Tuchel said. "They played with the right energy and if one team tries to play and run against this deep block and you don't find the spaces and it's tough to create chances, it can be difficult to watch."
Boston won't hold fond memories for some England fans. This place was already in love with the Scottish by the time the English rocked up. The pubs were tired, the place partied out. England fans came in hope of a repeat of the Croatia levels of performance, but instead traipsed out of the stadium at fulltime drenched, and listening to Ghanian songs of celebration. It wasn't in the script.
Neither was this the plan for England. Declan Rice and Tuchel both said on Monday that their second half performance against Croatia was the barometer for this group. That's set the standard, and nothing else now will do.
The group have talked about freedom of thought, and having space on the pitch to play instinctively. But what this performance against Ghana desperately lacked was any semblance of creativity.
The opening minutes unfortunately set the narrative for the rest of the game. England had virtually all the ball for the first three minutes of the match, calmly knocking it around, pressing and prodding the Ghana defence, to eventually misplace a pass and it ending up in a Ghana throw-in. Still, a promising, confident start. But it never moved up a gear from there. Ghana's discipline threw them, England unable to break down the wall of yellow and low block.
The two wingers did their best to stretch the match, but whenever either Noni Madueke or Anthony Gordon beat their marker and attempted to make some headway into the box, their pass failed to find their man. All the while Kane was wrapped in a Ghanaian web of impressive suffocation, Thomas Partey marking him effectively and preventing him from dropping deep.
As the second half dragged on, England badly needed that little injection of creativity, a spark in the middle of the pitch. Bellingham and Declan Rice are world class and can pick a pass, but the names you frequently heard on the lips of the England fans as they left the stadium weren't any in the 26.
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Instead you heard Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Morgan Gibbs-White being mentioned. The absent quartet. How they longed for a moment like Palmer created against Spain in the Euro 2024 final. Tuchel looked to Eberechi Eze and Morgan Rogers to provide that spark against Ghana, with Rice dropping deep and Elliot Anderson sacrificed to allow Rogers space.
Though they're wonderful players, Eze was frustrated on the wing and didn't have a chance to spin his way into the match, and what that left England with was a lack of spark, someone to find space in the phone box of a match and produce a moment of magic. "It took a lot of patience and repetitive attacks to break it down," Tuchel said post-match. "It was difficult to find space."
That's where the revisionist history comes in with Tuchel's original squad selection. It needed a player like Palmer to open things up, one of the big names missing.
"Like always, second game fever with England. Win the first one, do well and draw the second," Bellingham said afterwards. You had to feel for Bellingham, he was constantly having to battle to get any time on the ball, or space to influence matters.
They needed an extra threat around him to help draw attention elsewhere. The same went for Kane. And by the time the substitutions came, they were like-for-like and they encountered the same issues as those who started the match.
Tuchel said he has a plan heading forward to unlock these matches, but was reticent to unleash it in the closing stages of the match.
"I have some ideas and had an idea in the last water break but I was a bit hesitant but I have an idea of how to commit more players through the middle," Tuchel said.
"I don't think we've become predictable, we have wide wingers, fullbacks in half positions in attack and we try to break it down on the wing. We have options to go through the middle and switch of play, but it was tough today because of the strong defensive approach of our opponent."
Ultimately, there's no reason to go overboard here. A win against Panama in New Jersey will see England through as Group L winners. That's still the most likely scenario. But in a World Cup where the other big hitters put in impressive Round 2 performances, you feel England have missed a beat here.
Argentina, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Norway and Brazil all won their second matches to suggest they are building momentum, but this has checked the rhythm England were finding. It suddenly feels a little flat. When the Ghanaian defence showed no signs of buckling, they just lacked that bit of magic to open things up.
