Thomas Tuchel has not settled on a favourite winger duo before England’s match with Norway, and that uncertainty now sits at the centre of the build-up. He has already tried five of the possible six combinations, but the final choice remains open while Ståle Solbakken has kept Norway’s wide players on a far more fixed pattern.
That is why Nusa is being searched now. England’s wide-forward picture has been shifting from match to match, while Norway’s approach has been clearer, more repeatable and built to feed Erling Haaland. Tuchel said against Croatia that all four wingers were competing against each other at the highest level, and that has proved true in the most literal way: Anthony Gordon and Marcus Rashford have both been used on the left, Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka on the opposite side, and the left-sided pair have never been picked together because both prefer the same flank.
The pattern has shown up in England’s results as much as in the selection notes. In each of England’s previous three matches, the starting wingers were the two who had finished the preceding game, which suggests Tuchel has been reacting rather than fixing a preferred pair. Even when the shape was forced on him against Mexico, after Jarell Quansah’s red card in the 54th minute and Saka’s withdrawal shortly after, England ended up in a wing-less formation. That kind of emergency solution only underlines how unsettled the wide roles still are.
The numbers point to the same competition. Gordon leads the squad for average length of ball carry at the World Cup at 14.9 metres. Madueke leads for total distance carried per 90 minutes at 255.8 metres. Rashford is the leading England winger for carries of at least five metres that ended with a shot, and he scored from one such carry against Croatia. Saka is also in the frame for impact, with only two players at the tournament having created more goals after carries than him.
Norway, by contrast, have been more defined. Antonio Nusa and Alexander Sørloth started three of the four first-team matches, while Oscar Bobb and Andreas Schjelderup finished each of those four matches. Schjelderup’s only start came when Solbakken made 10 changes for the final group game against France, but he still left a mark, assisting Haaland for both goals against Brazil. He may be in the XI against England as well, which would give Norway another left-sided threat already shown to be productive. All four assists from those Norway players have come from the left, and that is the area England will have to shut down if they want to keep Haaland quiet.
That leaves the next selection the real story. Kane and Haaland are expected to play and probably score, so the decisive question is not up front but out wide: which England wingers Tuchel trusts, and whether Solbakken sticks with the left-sided pattern that has already done most of Norway’s damage.
