England's uninspired draw with Ghana is not a crisis but is a familiar story

A 0-0 draw against a Ghana side ranked 60 places below them. No shots on target from either team until the hour mark. Jude Bellingham making his 50th England appearance, becoming the youngest man in history to reach that milestone for his country, and spending most of it looking like he wanted to put his fist through a wall. 

And then, in the dying moments, Kane arrived eight yards out from a headed O'Reilly rebound with the goal gaping, and somehow volleyed over.

Four points from two games. Still top of Group L. Panama to come. Mathematically, fine. But fine is not the same as good.

The numbers tell an ugly story

Ghana managed two shots across 90 minutes, and neither hit the target. That was enough for a clean sheet, and it ranks among the fewest shots England have faced in a World Cup match in 60 years of record-keeping.

England had 78 per cent of the ball and yet did almost nothing with it. They put up 19 attempts and three on target, the first of which did not arrive until the 57th minute - making this the first game at the entire tournament to go through a first half without a single shot on target from either side.

An expected goals figure of 1.28 reads respectably enough until you map it onto the actual flow of the evening, at which point it becomes clear that England conjured most of their threat in a frantic late scramble rather than through anything resembling a Thomas Tuchel plan.

Marc Guehi completed 125 passes, the most by an England player in a World Cup match on record. In isolation, it's a remarkable statistic, but it is also a revealing one, because it tells you precisely how England were moving the ball: backwards and sideways through their centre-back rather than through anything with intent. Dominating possession while creating almost nothing is not control; it is worryingly familiar procrastination.

The same old second game

England drew their second group game against Scotland at Euro 2020, against the USA at the 2022 World Cup, and against Denmark at Euro 2024. We can now add Ghana to that list, marking four consecutive tournaments and four consecutive draws in game two.

The optimists will note that England reached back-to-back European finals off the back of similarly flat second outings. But there is a difference between struggling against a genuinely competitive opponent and being this toothless against a side that contributed two shots all night.

Ghana were not here to cause an upset, although at times they looked like they should. Instead, they were well-drilled and resolutely set up not to lose. For 80-odd minutes, England could not find the answer to that.

It also adds one more entry to an unwanted ledger: England have now played 13 goalless draws at the World Cup, more than any other nation in the competition's history. Brazil are second, four behind, but with far more appearances in the tournament and stars on their shirts.

Kane kept quiet

Kane's miss will grab the headlines. It was the kind of chance - O'Reilly's header rattles the bar, the ball drops to Kane eight yards out, Saka having set the whole move in motion - that strikers do not usually get to blame on anyone else. He somehow missed it.

But his isolation in the first half was not self-inflicted. He cannot manufacture service from nothing, and for long stretches England's build-up was so laboured that getting the ball to him in dangerous areas felt like an afterthought.

Kane finished the match with 19 touches, the fewest he has recorded for England in any major tournament appearance where he played at least 80 minutes.

To put that in context, at half-time he had managed nine touches, two of them aerial wins, as Ghana packed the central channels and left him feeding off scraps. England as a team had just 14 touches in the Ghana box across the full 90 minutes, so the supply problem was structural rather than anything Kane was doing wrong.

Compare that with his influence against Croatia - two goals, constantly involved, and you begin to wonder what he was being told to do in Boston.

It took until the substitutes arrived for England to carry any real threat. Saka, Rogers, and Eze are all more direct than what they replaced. O'Reilly headed against the bar moments before Kane's miss. The bench again looks like England's most effective weapon, which raises an uncomfortable question about what is happening in the starting eleven.

The elephant in the room is not in the room

Tuchel left Palmer and Foden out before the tournament, having judged that poor club seasons outweighed their quality at international level. That call looked bold in Dallas. In Boston, it looked like the beginning of a question that will only get louder.

The problem England had against Ghana - unlocking a disciplined low block with intelligence and movement - is precisely the kind of problem a player like Palmer tends to solve.

Against Panama, Tuchel will probably get away with the omission, and you would expect England to want to produce a statement performance. Against better-organised opposition in the knockouts, the margin for that kind of selective faith narrows considerably.

Keep calm and carry on

After Croatia's tight 1-0 victory over Panama, England are through, or as good as. They will very likely top the group on Saturday barring a catastrophe. But Boston confirmed something the Croatia win was always going to paper over: England have a genuine problem unlocking defensive teams when the system is not working.

When Rice cannot find a way through, when Kane is isolated, when the wide players are being shut down by a right-back nobody had heard of three weeks ago - what is the answer?

Tuchel got a free pass on that question in Dallas. The knockout stages are coming, and the teams waiting there will be better drilled and considerably less interested in handing England 78 per cent of the ball in exchange for two shots that never threatened the goal.

A dull 0-0 draw with Ghana could well look like a minor setback by then, or the moment everyone supporting the Three Lions should have massively lowered their expectations.

Brad Ferguson is a senior editor for Flashscore, primarily covering football, darts, and combat sports. Currently residing by the sea in Margate, he is a recovering Tottenham Hotspur fan, England-dreamer and part-time electronic music producer when not following orders from his dog. Find him on LinkedIn.