Thomas Tuchel’s England experiment yields few answers after disconnected performance at Wembley

By the time the World Cup really gets going, and Thomas Tuchel ’s senior players maybe have that extra bit of energy from this week off, England might well feel the benefit of this game. It’s hard to make a substantial list of who else did, though. Even Ben White , who marked his return with a poached goal, gave away the penalty from which Uruguay 's Federico Valverde equalised for a 1-1 draw.

There were very few England fans actually left by that point. Some of those that had stayed still greeted White's goal with some boos, given the debate about his recall. Among that crowd, perhaps some of the children getting to enjoy a big occasion at Wembley benefited.

Maybe Marcus Rashford, Djed Spence and Toni Livramento, who had some of the better performances in an otherwise disparate and disconnected team display. The latter was inevitable given that it was the first time many of these players appeared together, and it made for one of those international friendlies that was occasionally difficult to keep concentrating on. The opposition didn’t even look like a Marcelo Bielsa team on the night, certainly nothing like the one remembered with such adulation by those Leeds United fans present.

There were already a lot of empty seats as early the 70th minute. It looked more than half empty by the time Valverde fired into the corner. If Mikel Arteta was one of those trying to watch, he certainly won’t have enjoyed it, outside his right-back’s goal.