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Reece James could be back in England’s starting line-up against Norway - and both England and Thomas Tuchel need him to be at his best.
Although England have reached the World Cup quarter-finals after waltzing through the qualification process, you still don’t have to go too far to pundits or supporters who are prepared to criticise Thomas Tuchel – and now that his team’s performance is moving beyond easy reproach, it’s the challenging situation at right-back that’s providing the doubters will most of their ammunition.
Whether it’s the call to leave Trent Alexander-Arnold behind, the decision to replace the stricken Tino Livramento with a centre-half before the tournament, or Tuchel’s apparent surprise that the injury-prone Reece James might just go down with an injury, the ‘crisis’ down the right side of England’s defence has become a major talking point – and a key question is whether it will hamstring their campaign to become world champions for a second time.
Will Reece James’ return solve England’s right-back crisis?
Reece James tussles with Jordan Ayew during the 0-0 draw with Ghanaplaceholder image
Reece James tussles with Jordan Ayew during the 0-0 draw with Ghana | Getty Images
The good news for Tuchel is that James is back in training after a hamstring strain ruled him out of England’s last three matches, and the Chelsea full-back is expected to be restored to the starting line-up on Sunday when England take on Norway. This could well be the end of the alleged crisis.
A fully fit James is, based on the statistics, the best one-on-one defender and the best passer of the ball out of the England players who could sensibly play at right-back. He makes more interceptions and wins more duels per game than either Djed Spence or Jarell Quansah, apparently Tuchel’s preferred deputy, and is a natural at the position unlike any of the players who have filled in for him.
The return of James should strengthen a defence which already improved mightily against Mexico, while providing England with a little more creative support going forward. At club level, James created more than twice as many shooting opportunities as Quansah over the past season and three times as many as Spence.
The assumption, of course, is that he’s fully fit. Not only has James been sidelined for three games, but he came into the World Cup off the back of another hamstring injury which ruled him out of action for nearly two months – and with that injury, he passed 400 days missed due to hamstring problems in the last four years.
Will England get James back at his best after what Tuchel described as “accelerated rehabilitation”? Or will they get a slightly diminished version of a key player, as they have with an appreciably slower Bukayo Saka? And will he be capable of lasting the full 90 minutes (or longer) for three straight games? All questions that can’t easily be answered until the Three Lions take to the field at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
If James still needs to be handled with care, England may still have a headache. Quansah will be suspended for one match after his red card in the Estadio Azteca – although all bets are off as to whether that sticks given the way that FIFA handled Folarin Balogun’s suspension – and Spence has looked unconvincing when asked to play on the right, a less familiar position for him.
Tuchel has specifically mentioned Ezri Konsa’s impressive past performances at right-back for England, suggesting that he is also earmarked as a possibility, but that would mean taking a chance on John Stones or Dan Burn at centre-half, perhaps a risk given how little football either have played so far at the World Cup. Tuchel will surely want his preferred centre-half partnership in place to handle Erling Haaland.
James’ return is only the end of the hand-wringing about right-back if he’s fit enough to play his best football between now and the final a week on Sunday, assuming that England get that far. If he’s operating below peak efficiency, expect the debate to rumble on – and if he makes a mistake that costs England down the line, expect knives to be sharpened.
Why Thomas Tuchel left out Alexander-Arnold - and why he needs James at his best
Tuchel has now won 15 of his 19 matches in charge of Englandplaceholder image
Tuchel has now won 15 of his 19 matches in charge of England | Getty Images
Even Tuchel’s harshest critics would likely acknowledge that his options were rather limited when Livramento went down with a calf injury shortly before England’s opening match against Croatia. With Ben White also out for the summer, Tuchel was essentially given a simple choice: Call up Alexander-Arnold, who had made the 55-man preliminary squad, or stand by his previous criticisms of the Real Madrid right-back and leave him out.
“Sometimes [Alexander-Arnold] relies heavily on his offensive contributions, and gives not so much emphasis on the defensive discipline and effort,” Tuchel told the media last May, shortly before giving Alexander-Arnold his only cap since 2024. “This major impact that he had for Liverpool over so many years, if he wants to have this impact in the English national team, then he has to take the defensive part very seriously.
“[In] tournament football, the one defensive error, the one moment where you are not 100% awake, can be decisive, can be the moment where you pack your suitcases and go home.”
In short, Tuchel didn’t trust Alexander-Arnold as a defender and still doesn’t, and his debut season in Spain hasn’t provided many reasons to believe that he’s changed as a player. Given that Tuchel’s system demands that the full-backs remain in relatively conservative positions and prioritise their defensive duties, his aversion to Alexander-Arnold’s style of play is hardly unreasonable.
And so he stuck to his guns and created a controversy, leaving out the only fit right-back who remained as an option and leaving England somewhat vulnerable to James getting injured. He gambled that Quansah, Spence and Konsa would leave him with enough alternatives.
He may be proven wrong in that regard. Quansah struggled against Panama and was shown red for a rash challenge against Mexico, although he had played well up to that point. Spence’s positioning down the right against the Democratic Republic of Congo was poor and he looked awkward for the first half an hour. Konsa has had a decent tournament, but Tuchel has been understandably unwilling to move him out of the middle.
That puts a lot of pressure on James to be at his best on Saturday. England need him to be at his best – and so does Tuchel, lest he face the lion’s share of the blame for another failure to win the World Cup.