Football fans love the idea of the clean break, the fresh start, and the new era that is unlike anything that has come before. When Thomas Tuchel got the England job, it felt like he could deliver exactly that. An unquestionably world-class manager, coaching this English generation, clearly focusing on winning next year’s World Cup. Why shouldn’t they improve overnight?

But Friday’s opening 2-0 win over Albania was a reminder that maybe football is not that simple. There was very little wrong with this win. It was professional, efficient, and never in doubt, with a few moments of individual quality and a positive atmosphere in the stands. But for those exact reasons this felt like watching any other home qualifying win from the last eight years. There is nothing wrong with continuity Gazball on nights like this, and of course, this was Tuchel’s first game. Maybe those of us expecting radical transformation had gotten ahead of ourselves this week.

Tuchel had spoken before about wanting to inject some Premier League energy into this England team, to improve the “rhythm” of their game, to get them to press high and bring some physical dynamism back. It was an admirable goal, even if it did make you think that if playing high-tempo international football was easy then surely everyone would do it.

The differences between club and international football were there for all to see in the opening minutes here. Albania played exactly the way that you would expect them to: organised, hard-working, happy enough to sit back in their own half and wait for their moment. They had no issue with going long spells without the ball.

This is a perfectly good way to play in international football, but no one really plays like this in the Premier League. The opportunities to break into space that you get in the league are not present in the same way. Teams need to be patient, keep the ball, move the opposition around and wait for their moment.

So if you came here hoping to watch a radically different England team, playing a fast intense physically dominant game, then you will have been disappointed. You will have to wait another week for the return of domestic football to watch that. What we saw instead was a game that we have seen plenty of over the years: England dominating at Wembley, trying to be creative enough to pick apart an organised defence while never leaving themselves open on the counter-attack.

This is the sort of game that Gareth Southgate perfected over the years, given that his England team had an immaculate record in major tournament qualifying. There is a skill to doing enough to win games like this. England have been far better at it in the last few years than they used to be. And so much of international football is exactly this. Everyone wants to make history, performing with the eyes of the world on them at a major tournament. But those big moments are all underpinned by professional but ultimately forgettable wins like this one.

So it is no criticism of Tuchel to say that much of this game could have been archival footage from the Southgate era. The territorial dominance, the early burst before a pedestrian half, the sense that they never quite hit top speed, and the reliance on the star players to provide the moments of quality that won the game. The victory was comfortable and efficient — but not dazzling. It could have been any England home qualifying win since 2016.

In the dominant first half hour, there was a sense of how England might want to play, as they dominated the ball in the Albania half, monopolising possession and barely allowing the visitors a kick. England moved the ball with confidence while lacking the cutting edge needed to cut through an organised defence. It was no coincidence that the first time Albania were surprised by a brave run off the ball — from Miles Lewis-Skelly — it produced the opening goal.

England continued to control the game but the movement and skill required in wide areas was never quite there. They created a few chances to double their lead, but not as many as you might expect from their possession. And it took a moment of Harry Kane mastery to kill the game, producing a brilliant first touch and precise finish from a Declan Rice cross. Kane has a magic knack for turning slight openings into goals, as Tuchel knows as well as anyone. In tight games like this, that skill is invaluable, as Southgate often found over the years..

You might think it would be unfair to criticise this performance too much given the obvious context. This squad and manager only met for the first time on Monday. They had less than one week to train together before trying to embark on a new international era with a new style of play. It would be easy enough to say that this was a solid start and leave it at that.

But Tuchel wants to bring a relentless candour to this England job, and he made a point of saying afterwards that he wants to see more. Especially from the two men who started in wide areas, Marcus Rashford on the left and Phil Foden on the right. “Both of our wingers who started today were not as impactful as they normally can be, as they are in club football,” Tuchel said afterwards. He admitted that England did not move the ball to those two as quickly as they could have done, but also said Rashford and Foden could have done more with it.

If the Tuchel era delivers a more dynamic aggressive style then it will certainly need more from out wide. Rashford looked rusty in the first half but grew into the second half. Foden was technically tidy without ever threatening to be decisive, stationed wide on the right.

This was perhaps the greatest Southgate continuity of all. The former England manager never knew exactly how to get the best from Foden, who has played plenty of games for his country without ever looking like an indispensable player. This could have been any Foden England performance from the last few years, all the way back to Euro 2020. His technical level is inarguable but he does not always click with the team. If Bukayo Saka is fit for the games in June he will surely come back to play on the right. At which point Foden will have to fit in somewhere else.

Maybe that will be out on the left, in the role Rashford played here on Friday night. Tuchel has explained the case for recalling Rashford but he clearly still has some way to go. Maybe Anthony Gordon is the most natural fit on that side, if Tuchel wants direct pace in the team. Or perhaps someone else will emerge.

There will be another chance here against Latvia on Monday for Tuchel to try to answer some of these questions. We are still only one game in. But maybe the hopes that Tuchel would unveil a reinvented wheel at Wembley this week were unrealistic.

(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)