Tuchel needs to give England a flair chance of World Cup glory

ENGLAND play Latvia in Riga tonight which will bring another World Cup qualifying Group K victory. There is no doubt about this or England's place in next year's finals in USA, Mexico and Canada.

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Brummie England hopefuls Jude Bellingham and, inset, Jack Grealish

England head the group with a maximum 15 points, having won all five games to date, They have a four-point lead over second-placed Albania with a game in hand. They have already beaten Latvia 3-0 at Wembley on March 25 with goals coming from Reece James, Harry Kane and Eberechi Eze.

Winning tonight will guarantee England their spot in North America next summer with two qualifying matches to spare. Latvia have only one group win. They are 137th in the world rankings - England are fourth. The match kicks off at 7.45pm and is live on ITV.

It is no fault of England, of course, that their various qualifying groups have been drawn as easy ones.

I do not like friendly contests in sport but in football's case, they are necessary as there are limited times for get-togethers for the players and the national team head coach.

As impressive as England's first-half performance was last week in the friendly with Wales, it was hardly the latter stages of the World Cup against the likes of Spain, France, Argentina and Brazil.

So when Thomas Tuchel says building the team is more important than certain individuals, he may need to rethink that next year.

Jude Bellingham is world class and England need players like that. Sometimes we run out of ideas against the best teams and Jude and Jack Grealish have the skills to unlock those situations.

England have won the World Cup final once, famously in 1966, at Wembley and twice lost semifinals in Italy in 1990 and Russia in 2018.