Thomas Tuchel gives blunt answer to why two England stars did not play against Ghana

Thomas Tuchel brought on Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Morgan Rogers, and Marcus Rashford in a bid to break through Ghana's defence, but didn't turn to out-and-out strikers Ivan Toney or Ollie Watkins. The German coach never considered replacing Harry Kane as the two forwards remained on the bench for the second match in succession. Ghana frustrated England in the World Cup clash on Tuesday evening, with Tuchel's men unable to find any luck against their opponents. Ghana played an incredibly low block and with plenty of aggression. More than once did the likes of Elliott Anderson and Jude Bellingham find themselves on the deck. The constant stop-start nature of the game meant England never found any real momentum. Tuchel turned to his plethora of attacking talent hoping for a goal but neither one of his strikers found the pitch.

Opting to keep Harry Kane on for the full 90 minutes instead of throwing on Toney or Watkins, Tuchel said it wasn't even a consideration to take him off. Kane produced a stunning miss late in the game, but remains the side's most potent weapon. "Change Harry Kane in a game that is stuck and 0-0?!" he said. "Taking Harry off, no?"

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Elaborating further on his goalscorer, he said, "Everyone is pushing and I think we had three different goalscorers in the first match and to rely on Harry is just a natural thing because he loves responsibility and he takes it. "He was not involved as much as we like to, it was just so, so narrow. Our two central defenders were responsible for the build up and then it was basically eight against 10. It was difficult to find space.

"The little moments that he had was just unlucky and the last one is normally a clear goal and that would have got us a deserved win. We rely on Harry because we can, because he's our forward, but we don't over-rely on him."

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Neither Toney or Watkins was introduced against Croatia, either. Panama may present an opportunity for Tuchel to change things and give them a chance, but he insists he's not thought of that yet. "I have no idea. Panama is in four days," he said bluntly.

Aston Villa star Watkins spoke about his role before the match against Ghana. "I think the expectation for me is people don't see me playing, obviously they see Harry playing, but I know what I can bring to the table," he explained.

"I watch the game when I'm on the bench, I can see the game opens up. It's a completely different game when you start a game of football than when you finish it.

"I've experienced that as a substitute, there are so many more opportunities when you come on. A lot of people are tired, they lose focus and sometimes it can be better to be a substitute than to start the game.

"I've spoken about it so many times before. I said I was going to score that day and I did.

"It's the best feeling to come on and change the game and I'm hoping to do that again this tournament."

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