Jamie Carragher has accused Thomas Tuchel of making a mistake by omitting Cole Palmer from England's World Cup squad after a goalless draw with Ghana. The former Liverpool defender argued that the team lacked creativity against a disciplined Ghanaian defence, a problem he believes Palmer could have solved.
England's lacklustre performance against Ghana
After an emphatic win over Croatia, England needed a second consecutive victory to secure top spot in Group L. Tuchel made two changes, bringing in Djed Spence and Marc Guehi for John Stones and Nico O'Reilly. While the defence improved, the attack struggled to break down Ghana's organised setup. Late chances saw O'Reilly hit the bar and Harry Kane sky the rebound, but England failed to score.
Speaking at half-time, Carragher told The Telegraph: 'When Bellingham and Rice play between the lines against a defence set-up like this, you either need a bit of magic from them outside the box, or the wingers to deliver far more than they are currently doing. That’s England’s problem here. The longer this goes on, the more we must look to the bench and ask who can come on and make a difference? Rice and Bellingham are all about power and energy; they aren’t magicians in the spaces between the lines. If this continues, the debate will start regarding Cole Palmer’s absence. We’ve seen so many games like this in major tournaments. Those who championed Palmer’s inclusion foresaw tactical conundrums like this – which is why some of us thought it better to have him as an option.'
Tuchel's decision to leave out Palmer
Palmer's omission was the biggest shock of Tuchel's squad selection. The Chelsea star was left out despite his unique personality and ability to deliver in big moments. Tuchel instead chose Jude Bellingham, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze, and Noni Madueke as options in the No.10 role and on the right wing. Explaining his decision, Tuchel said: 'I think he suffers from a lack of individual form within his club. He was not as decisive or as influential as he was in the last seasons, throughout the whole season. Second of all, he was not very influential with us. His record with us was just not outstanding, not good enough to make him "no matter what, he is coming". That is just the reality of it. He had to pull out injured several times, when he was in camp he did not have the impact that we all wanted to push him for. I can find a lot of arguments to have him in the squad. I respect his quality and his very unique personality, he was never a problem in camp, I think his personality helps him, even in big moments, to not show nerves, and to be decisive. But to have these moments you need also to be in shape, you need to be influential within this group and he has just failed to prove it, on a consistent level. It was one of the most difficult phone calls and obviously one of the most prominent names that we leave out, but I refuse to bring players for the name and I refuse to then play them out of position just to give them something. It is a very difficult and a very hard decision. There is no question about his talent, there is no question what he can give you in special moments, but the decision was still against him.'
Impact on England's World Cup campaign
Despite the draw, England remain strong favourites to top Group L, with Panama up next. Carragher admitted the result was a reality check but urged calm. He said: 'Back down to earth for England. It’s a disappointing performance, but the bigger picture is that the two most difficult games are out of the way. It’s actually a decent point because Ghana were unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty. With Panama to come, England are 99 percent certain to win the group. There was probably too much euphoria after the first game. We need to be careful not to go too overboard with criticism for this result, even though there are issues to resolve moving forward.'
