How do England beat Spain, or even score against them? The data suggests crosses

Thomas Tuchel wishes his team could play more like the world champions, but, as he put it, they may have to ‘embrace the chaos’ instead England are about to face the hardest challenge in international football, maybe at any level of the game. They are going to try to score against Spain. Spain conceded one goal in eight games on the way to winning the World Cup while allowing their opponents 2.37 expected goals, a mere 0.30 per 90 minutes played. Thomas Tuchel has said he hoped his side “became for 10 minutes more like Spain” to comfortably dominate possession when the heat was on. A fine aspiration for those situations, but it is not an approach that will help England unlock the Spain backline. The pass masters cannot be toppled that way. The solution may lie elsewhere within the same Tuchel press conference . Continue reading...