It was Thomas Tuchel’s first outing as the new England coach and he secured a comfortable 2-0 victory against Albania in England’s opening qualifying game for next year’s World Cup.

Under Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England coach, the Three Lions moved closer to getting to the later stages of major tournaments but were not quite able to get over the line. Tuchel’s job is to build on that progress and secure a World Cup or Euros trophy.

The German is regarded as one of the world’s top coaches, winning silverware at both Chelsea (UEFA Champions League) and Bayern Munich (Bundesliga). He has also been head coach at Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund. Thomas Tuchel has won 11 trophies.

He is the third non-English head coach of the national team. 

Yesterday’s (March 21) match saw a workmanlike, cautious performance by the England team. Tuchel brought back both Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson into the side and they may yet be regular fixtures again. They must do more to impress the new boss.

The debutant Myles-Lewis Skelly played well and scored in the 20th minute. At just 18, the Arsenal player is a prospect and one to watch. Tuchel was pleased with his performance.

Ezri Konsa impressed in defence. The Aston Villa man saved a certain goal with a brilliantly timed tackle reminiscent of Booby Moore’s move against Jaizinho in the 1970 World Cup against Brazil.

Declan Rice looks comfortable in the England set-up and completed a number of telling passes.

Jude Bellingham bossed this game and at just 21 now has  40 caps for England. He was imperious against Albania and time and time again unlocked their defence.

Harry Kane displayed why he is a master striker. Take a look at how he scored England’s second goal in the 77th minute. Pay particular attention to the takedown from the ball from Declan Rice and the placement of the ball around the defenders into the corner of the net. Pure class. Kane has now scored 70 goals for England and is on his way to the 100 mark.

Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane was not impressed with Phil Foden’s performance on the right flank. The Manchester City star has been out of sorts for his club so far this year.

“You’ve got a new manager, you want to make a good impression and Rashford and Foden certainly didn’t do that today.

“If you’re one of them attacking players, you come off the pitch and you’ve dominated a game like that against a poor Albanian team and you’ve not scored a goal, you’ve not had a shot on target, you’ve not tested the goalkeeper, you would be disappointed because you’re there to affect games,” said the Manchester United legend.

After the game, the England coach said: “ We can do better and we have to do better. We started quite well, with a lot of passes and high energy but the opponent was hard to wear down because they defended in a deep block and all the matches we saw in the Euros, they managed to not concede chances, not concede goals.

“In the second half, I felt we were too slow  and there  weren’t enough runs off the ball to get more often behind the line.”

Tuchel is urging England to play with no fear and trust in their style of play. He is of the view that fear stoped them from winning the Euros last summer and beating France in the World Cup semi-finals.

England play Latvia on Monday night.