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With Ezri Konsa injured, England have the chance to try something new in defence - but changes in personnel might not fix the issue.
Thomas Tuchel doesn’t all that interested in using the current international break, which wraps up with another game against Czechia at Wembley on Tuesday evening, to conduct experiments or to take a lingering look at any of his fringe players. The past three matches suggest that England’s head coach feels like he has a firm idea of who his starters are.
Lewis Hall and Alex Scott have been given chances by the absence of others, granted, but players like Trent Alexander-Arnold and Trevoh Chalobah were straight back on the bench for Saturday’s 7-0 demolition of Croatia despite playing well in Prague last week. That most recent selection sent a message to several players suggesting that not only are they not in the starting XI, but that their opportunities to impress may be limited.
At least one change will be necessary against Czechia on Tuesday, however, with Ezri Konsa sent home after aggravating a minor injury in Rijeka. That breaks up Tuchel’s preferred defensive partnership, and begs a question – would another centre-back pairing perform any better?
Should England try something a little different with Ezri Konsa unavailable?
England will have to make do without Ezri Konsa for Tuesday's match against Czechiaplaceholder image
England will have to make do without Ezri Konsa for Tuesday's match against Czechia | Getty Images
Since Tuchel took charge, it’s reasonable to suggest that England’s defence hasn’t been their strong suit. Their superstars are strikers and midfielders, and their back four hasn’t always been as solid as their head coach might have liked.
There have been some impressive performances – the already-famous rearguard action at the Azteca back in July springs to mind – but for the most part there is a sense that the defence is more of a vulnerability than a strength. It’s not a feeling that has been dispelled during the first few games of the Nations League campaign, either.
In the eventual defeat to Spain, for instance, Marc Guéhi made a dreadful mistake to gift a goal to Lamine Yamal at the very beginning of a game in which the world champions’ speed of thought in the final third proved to be a little too quick, too often.
Against Czechia, meanwhile, the defence looked distinctly nervy for the first 15 minutes, struggled against the high press, and can be grateful to Pavel Sulč, who blew a couple of presentable chances before getting himself sent off. Even Croatia, having one of their worst nights in recent history, managed 12 shots on goal and 1.39xG’s worth of chances.
Tuchel seems to have settled on the notion of Guéhi and Konsa as his first-choice pairing, but there is perhaps room for improvement. Now that Konsa is heading home early while both John Stones and Dan Burn, the ageing veterans who played supporting roles at the World Cup, are unavailable through injury, it provides an opportunity for someone else to audition for a role.
That will most likely be Trevoh Chalobah, who started against Czechia and was called up to the World Cup squad as a late injury replacement, but this is a defender who was deemed surplus to requirements by Chelsea just a few months ago. The alternative, assuming that Jarell Quansah is pegged as a full-back for the foreseeable future, is Jarrad Branthwaite, who has been ravaged by injuries over the past two years. The call sheet has many question marks on it.
Perhaps the issue is not so much the players picked and more about the role they are picked for. England’s defence has tended to be at its least convincing when placed under consistent pressure around their own penalty area – think of their struggles in the group stage at the World Cup, as well as the early minutes against Spain and Czechia last week – but Tuchel seems determined to persist with playing out from the back.
It doesn’t seem to be something that England are especially comfortable with. Guéhi and Konsa, although very accurate passers, perhaps lack the technique and ball-carrying skills to knock the ball past an onrushing defender and unlock the second level.
The problem with using defenders who aren’t confident with the ball at their feet is that their only option is to pass and if they can’t get past the first man, then their only passing options will be sideways or backwards. That means playing the next man into pressure as well. Playing out from the back only works if you have players who can navigate through the initial pressure, whether with a dribble or a quick one-two.
Guéhi and Konsa, for some perspective, each averaged just one successful dribble every five matches in the Premier League last season, and Konsa hasn’t even attempted a dribble yet since the summer, for club or country. Their traditional defensive work – the tackles, the clearances, the blocks and so on – isn’t an issue, but if they can’t play out of trouble then England will invite quite a lot of it.
So do Chalobah or Branthwaite offer an answer? It might be worth finding out if Tuchel insists on playing out from the back whenever possible.
Could Chalobah or Branthwaite improve England?
Marc Guéhi struggled to handle Lamine Yamal against Spainplaceholder image
Marc Guéhi struggled to handle Lamine Yamal against Spain | Getty Images
Branthwaite has a great many qualities. He is titanic in the air, his positioning is exceptional, and his passing has improved dramatically. Had it not been for injuries, his stock would surely have risen far higher in recent seasons. Nevertheless, he cannot be fairly described as a natural ball-playing defender.
Konsa may not have attempted a dribble so far this season, but Branthwaite hasn’t tried one for size since the 2024/25 campaign. That’s a reflection of how much time he has spent on the treatment table, in part, but nonetheless – if you want someone who can shimmy out from under pressure which the ball at his feet, the Everton defender probably isn’t your first choice for the job.
Chalobah probably is slightly better with his feet than his immediate rivals for a place in the side, but is still scarcely a defender you would associate with surging forward runs. He has one successful dribble in Serie A for Como this season, and was at precisely the same one-in-five pace as Guéhi and Konsa at Chelsea last season. For the sake of completeness, Stones is the best of the apparent candidates in such situations but not by any great order of magnitude while Burn is not any better, as one might expect.
There is, of course, much more to being press-resistant as an individual or as a team than the capacity to manoeuvre out of a small pocket of space with the ball at one’s feet, but it is quite helpful, and none of England’s centre-backs really do it. It isn’t an attribute that seems to be drilled into our young defenders at academy level.
Chalobah or Branthwaite deserve opportunities for caps based on other merits, and are both on track to enjoy fine careers as traditional centre-backs. But neither are likely to provide Tuchel with a solution to the biggest issue with the defence, which is its ability to deal with the high press.
Tuchel seems to be resistant to the idea that England are a nation of shopkeepers instead of ball-playing defenders. His vision for football played out from the back is perfectly reasonable on its own merits, but doesn’t suit an England side which could stand to shore up its one real weakness – a defence which creates too many chances for the opposition.
There are other ways in which Chalobah, Branthwaite, or some other striving young defender might prove themselves worthy of minutes in the future. Perhaps a bit of extra pace at the back would help to cover gaps on the counter-attack more effectively, another weakness of the defence. Perhaps having some extra height and physicality would allow them to defend slightly deeper and narrower, and maybe that would be more effective.
Or maybe Guéhi and Konsa are the best two centre-backs available and the issue is simply the structure, the playing style, and the fact that England aren’t that great at taking the ball out from the back under pressure. They can’t be good at everything.
Perhaps the best bet is simply to play direct. Be vertical. Get the ball upfield at speed. Let the defenders be defenders and accept that they aren’t going to offer a base for quick counter-attacks, playing penetrating forward passes into midfield or surging forward with the ball. Some nations have defenders who can do that. England don’t.