On a huge TV at Tottenham’s training ground, home to Thomas Tuchel’s England ahead of Tuesday’s game with Czech Republic, the pundits on Sky Sports were discussing whether the national team’s front four of Harry Kane, Anthony Gordon, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham was now the best in world football.Evidence, then, that some things don’t change. A (very) big win for England in Croatia at the weekend and optimism is back in vogue in English football.And England have been very good at this over the years. When it comes to beating modest opponents, few are better.Tuchel, for example, took his team through World Cup qualifying without conceding a goal. Gareth Southgate’s England qualified for the 2022 version by scoring 39 times.It’s when the really serious stuff takes place that England find it more difficult. England have grown in to this four-game Nations League programme and should finish it by beating Czech Republic at Wembley on Tuesday. But they started it by losing at home to Spain so the challenges – shortcomings if you were being harsh – remain clear and familiar.’The Spain result was not, in our opinion, reflective of the body of the game,’ said Tuchel’s assistant Anthony Barry. Few are better at beating modest opponents than England – but weren’t great against Spain’We were absolutely there with them. We were there toe-to-toe with them. But we made far too many big individual technical mistakes.’It’s about the next fix when we arrive in Madrid to play them in six weeks. But for us, the performance against Spain overall was a positive.’We could argue about it if we wished. England were largely wretched out of possession in losing 3-2 ten days ago. Nevertheless, England once again do carry the look of a team moving forwards.Saturday’s trampling of Croatia in Rijeka was perhaps the night that England’s first choice front four was established.Bellingham’s progress to the moon continues apace while Anthony Gordon’s development since swapping Newcastle for Barcelona in the summer has been extraordinary. As for Kane, Barry described him as the best striker of a football he has ever seen.’And that includes Cristiano,’ he said, with reference to his spell working with Ronaldo and the Portuguese national team.It’s perhaps outside of that part of the field where England’s challenges remain. Can Tuchel and Barry build a structure and a confidence that can support such undoubted attacking talent when it is properly stress tested in a big summer tournament?Inside the England set-up, they believe it can happen. Barry expounded principles of greater freedom – for Bellingham in particular but also for the team – allied to a harnessing of Kane’s continued excellence. He also expressed a hope that the greater calibre of opposition provided by the Nations League can help prepare England for tournament football. Jude Bellingham (right) continues his rapid rise, while Anthony Gordon (centre) has made huge strides since joining Barcelona’We felt that over the previous two years, a large part of the process was good,’ said Barry. ‘Now it’s adding things on top of that. The model now is less prescribed. It’s less fixed in the idea of ‘you play here, you play there.’ It’s more about fluidity. It’s more an interchange of position and we feel it actually suits this group of players.’Nowhere is that more apparent than in the reincarnation of Bellingham. Not in the squad a year ago, Bellingham has had to win Tuchel’s trust not only as a person but in terms of his positional discipline on the field. To listen to Barry on Monday was to gain an insight into an almost complete shift in thinking.’I spoke with Jude at the beginning of the camp,’ explained Barry. ‘This structure allows him to play more from his intuition and less from being locked down or caged in a certain position. It allows him to roam and operate in spaces that he thinks he can be dangerous and so far it’s brought out the best in him.’I think you see now in Jude the evolution of a player and of a person. He’s only 23. We all expect so much from him. But he’s also finding his own way.’It is a challenge to find his best position because he can do them all. We’ve had many players for England like that in the past. Steven Gerrard was similar. Paul Scholes.’The challenge is to give Jude a space where he can do it all at once inside of one game. Right now, in a short sample, it seems like we found a solution. But we have to continue. It’s only three games.’The importance of Bellingham and Kane became clear in America and it endures. We are lucky to have them and within our rights to worry about how we would be in their absence.We may get a view of that on Tuesday – Bellingham may not start a game that will see Kane match Peter Shilton’s England record of 125 appearances – but it is a final Nations League fixture against Spain next month that is beginning to assume importance. The England management are hopeful the Nations League can help prepare the side for tournament football’We hope part of the jigsaw we are putting together is the opponents,’ explained Barry.’The Nations League gives us that opportunity, hopefully, to play a quarter-final in March and then to hopefully play a semi-final and maybe a final in June. It’s a chance to put the players into a position of jeopardy where it really does matter in terms of preparation for the Euros.PROBABLE ENGLAND TEAM Pickford; Alexander-Arnold, Guehi, Chalobah, Hall; Anderson, Lewis-Skelly; Saka, Rogers, Gordon; Kane <!- – ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/sport/football/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 – ->
‘It is one of the things that we really think is a stepping stone. It’s why we are going after the Nations League in the manner that we are.’I look back at the World Cup with elements of pride and pain both mixed in. The review was long and deep but I think good reviews are the trampoline or the jump off point to go where you want to go, and to ask the hard questions, ask the difficult questions.’We do it. We look each other in the eye, and that’s why, hopefully, we’ve managed to start off quite well. Now we want to chase down Spain for the top of the group.’