It’s been nearly a full week since the start of the 2026 World Cup and before the madness that will surround everything that England do – good, bad or ugly – begins, I thought it would be a good time to see how our boys have done to date. Of the 16 originally selected, 15 remain with Jurrien not being deemed fit enough to participate. Four of those boys are in the England squad so that leaves us with 11 who could, should or have had some minutes on the pitch. But with Gabi Martinelli, David and Zubi yet to feature, we are left with eight performances to analyse and it’s fair to say that it has been a bit of a mixed bag so far.
Success for the big men up front
It’s been an excellent start for both Kai and Viktor with both opening their accounts, albeit against a couple of the lesser fancied teams in the competition. It was particular pleasing to see Kai lead the line for the Mannschaft as I still feel that despite everything that he constributed last season, many of us do not realise how lucky we are to have him.
Shaky at times at the back
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The same however cannot be said for our trio of defenders. Whilst big Wilo played with his usual composure and elegance in a near sweeper role for France, bot big Gabi and Piero had more mixed opening matches. Gabi seemed to be unsure of himself on a number of occasions suggesting that Budapest may still be on his mind, whilst Cote d’Ivoire’s ‘starboy’, Yan Diomande gave Piero a torrid time, particularly in the first 45 minutes.
Ok, but nothing special for Leo and Martin
Whilst rumours abound that both players may be high on our list of potential summer departees abound, neither player really imposed themselves on their respective matches. Martin will be the happier of the two as at least he managed a corner assist before being withdrawn on 75 minutes. Leo played the full 90 minutes against Egypt, but struggled to impose himself in a match where Belgium did very little to justify their perennial position as tournament dark horses.
Two from four likely to start tonight
And so, with apologies to my non-English readers, we move on to tonight’s main event. I think that it is taken as read that Bukayo will be rested and Tuchel’s style of replacing like for like within a set system means that Noni is a nailed on starter, whilst Vice-Captain Declan will be in his usual midfield role. I hope that Ebe may get 20 minutes before the end, but I would rather see Buks stay firmly on the bench to hopefully keep him unhurt for the latter stages.