It’s clear that Marcus Rashford has been listening to Thomas Tuchel – but here’s why that might not be a good thing, writes IAN LADYMAN

The stark reality for Thomas Tuchel is that a quarter of his World Cup preamble is now behind him. Two qualifying games gone, six to go.

Much of the good news starts and ends with the results. Two victories, two clean sheets. The rest of it is more nuanced. There has been much that we have seen before from England teams here at Wembley against limited opponents who come to sit and smother and frustrate.

Too much football that was slow and linear. Too few instances when pace was injected and the speed of the passing and interchanges quickened sufficiently to create space and openings and goals. England got three in the end here against the 140th best team in the world but they had to work and wait for two of them.

Tuchel would appear to have an idea in his head of how he would like his England to play, at least during this qualification phase. The new England head coach’s messaging has been consistent, revolving around established Premier League values and, in the build-up to this game, something even more intrinsically English.

‘Sometimes I think about if it would be the right thing to play in a very traditional 4-4-2 as an English national team,’ Tuchel said on Sunday.

‘This is how I think about English football. A lot of crosses. Crosses from half-field. Two strikers on the pitch. So let’s find out.’

The new England boss spoke about the merits of 4-4-2 before the match against Latvia

West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen (left) gets stuck in against Latvia without having much joy

It has been peculiar rhetoric simply because it has been so long since an England coach has said anything like it. For years we have been trying to convince ourselves we have grown into European football sophisticates, that we have finally caught up with everybody else. And now this, a request for pace and power and crosses into the box.

On this occasion, it was not overly successful. It had not been on Friday against Albania, either.

But the strange truth of it here was that Latvia could not actually deal with the crude stuff. The corners and the crosses from deep. They had three central defenders in a back line of five that often resembled seven and none of them could head the ball. They also had a goalkeeper who could not always catch. England, if anything, were guilty of simply failing to realise, to look at what was in front of them and prey on an obvious weakness.

So this was, at least until the latter stages, another bits-and-pieces performance where the wide players Marcus Rashford and Jarrod Bowen, in particular, tried their damnedest to follow their instructions but did not always succeed. Too much of England’s football was once again through the middle and into the traffic. As Tuchel stood in his cap and his mac on the touchline, he must have yearned for the width that may just have stretched this game.

He had asked it beforehand. In fact, he had demanded it and England tried to deliver. It was a shame that Anthony Gordon was back in Newcastle nursing a hip injury. The Liverpudlian is England’s throwback wide player, a straight-line runner who lives for directness and open green spaces.

This is not Rashford’s game and never has been. The 27-year-old is quick but prefers to come in off his flank in search of short passes and angles. He is not a particularly natural crosser of the ball.

Bowen, of West Ham, was slightly more progressive here, helped occasionally and usefully by full-back Reece James on the overlap.

At times, the thought occurred that maybe Rashford was trying too hard, something that probably has not been said about him for quite a while. Certainly not in Manchester, where his parent club will have been watching his gradual reawakening at Aston Villa with some curiosity.

Phil Foden was given 20 minutes against Latvia to show what he could do in the No 10 role

Eberechi Eze made a statement by coming off the bench and scoring England’s third goal

At his best, Rashford is an instinctive player — he may not benefit from too much instruction

It was clear that Rashford had at least been listening to Tuchel. He may not have played had Gordon been fit but a second chance presented itself and on occasion he seemed to get a little consumed by a clear desire to take it. Instructions are all very well in football but they can cloud a player’s mind, too. Take away the instinct from a forward such as Rashford and you risk taking away half the player.

During his best years – of which there may yet be more – Rashford was a free runner and a free thinker. Here, he seemed at times rather too fixated with providing England with the qualities that Tuchel had called for. He examined his full back on occasion and occasionally came up with the answer to the puzzle. But with Latvia sitting deep and defending with a bank of five and often more, there was more often than not another maroon shirt willing to get in the way.

Ultimately, England profited when the game became broken. Morgan Rogers, of Aston Villa, was productive. Jude Bellingham was eternally busy but probably should have been sent off.

Rashford and Bowen swapped flanks in the second half. Then Bowen was replaced by Eberechi Eze, who scored. Phil Foden, meanwhile, was given a run at 10, his favourite position.

Two games into the Tuchel era, then, and his England resemble a bit of a puzzle. This is not necessarily a surprise and certainly not his fault. Time was always going to be his enemy during this mad dash towards the start line of the World Cup. The reality is that we may not get to know how good, or otherwise, his team are until they get there.