The only interesting aspect of England’s glorified training exercise against New Zealand last weekend was the reaction to the performance of Rio Ngumoha, who illuminated the second half of a dreadfully dull 1-0 win over the lowest-ranked team at the World Cup. Some observers even went so far as to openly wonder why the Liverpool winger hadn’t been included in the tournament squad – or at least put on the longlist, which would have at least meant he could have been called up in the event of a withdrawal.
Whether it really would have been right to include a 17-year-old who started just five Premier League games last season is debatable – but what’s not up for discussion is that the England bench will lack a little X-factor.
One can certainly understand why Tuchel omitted Phil Foden and Cole Palmer – both performed well below their best last season and Morgan Rogers has been so good that there’s an outside chance he even starts ahead of Bellingham (more on that later!).
However, it was odd that there was no room in the squad for Morgan Gibbs-White, given he was the joint-fifth-highest scorer in the 2025-26 Premier League – despite playing as a No.10 for Nottingham Forest, who spent most of the campaign fighting against relegation. Would such an in-form player not have been a more menacing option off the bench than Eberechi Eze, who only seems to play well against Tottenham Hotspur and made no impact after coming on for Arsenal in the Champions League final?
Eze’s club-mate, Noni Madueke, was just as ineffective against a tiring Paris Saint-Germain defence in Budapest, as it seems his only real attribute is provoking penalty claims – which is why Saka’s Achilles problem is so worrying. Madueke’s pace may pose problems but, as we saw against Costa Rica, he certainly can’t finish.
On the opposite flank, Marcus Rashford’s return to form at Barcelona is a major boost, while Anthony Gordon had such an underwhelming club campaign that Newcastle felt they could do without him for the final few games before his own move to Camp Nou was confirmed – to the absolute bemusement of so many neutral observers.
Granted, Gordon looked lively against the mighty Costa Ricabut the bottom line is that England don’t really have any real game-changers in reserve, attackers capable of doing something radically different to those they’re replacing – which is precisely why Ngumoha’s performance against New Zealand provided so much food for thought.
