England 3-0 Latvia: the boring display shows that Thomas Tuchel’s search for chills is not an easy task

This is not, one must underline, a criticism of Tuchel, whose mandate in his childhood.

It is simply a confirmation that providing the type of thrilling race that the German coach wants to serve for fans of England is easier to say than to become in these types of games with this team, and there is no quick solution to change it.

If Tuchel thought he could quickly wipe out the cobwebs he believed had gathered on the England of Southgate, then his first two games in charge will have been a reassuring dose of reality.

There has been little, so far, to distinguish Tuchel’s team from the one he preceded.

For long periods this was a fatal performance in England.

Tuchel, in some respects, made a rod for his back with his profoundly flattering review of the efforts of the three lions in Germany last summer and his speech of change.

England has done some of the things requested by their new boss. He wants more touches in the opposition box – and that figure is more than doubled from his first game against Albania, increasing from 34 Friday to 69 against Latvia.

They put 36 crosses in a night in which they enjoyed 73.5% of possession, but the final product was scarce. Marcus Rashford slightly improved his performance against Albania, but Jarrod Bowen could not have the desired impact to replace Phil Foden in difficulty.

England sent 21 of those crosses in the first half, most in a game since they played in Poland in October 2013 and delivered 25, but their only game of goals from James’s free.

In a sign of the complete domain of England, they had 569 successful passages in half of Latvia compared to the 26 of visitors in theirs and must be disappointed by these overwhelming statistics led to relatively scarce results.

Tuchel wants to give England a new identity while trying to cross the psychological barrier from a team almost to the winners, but – as often in the past – the acid test will only come when (it is almost not if) they qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

The qualifications should be a formality of a group that also contains Andorra and Serbia, so it is likely that the first high quality opponents will meet when they arrive at the World Cup.

It is a situation in which they were first – and then they were found to be desired when it is important.