Declan Rice's Tactical Shift at Right-Back Delivers for England

England’s key tactical shift didn’t come from the man in the spotlight on the touchline, but from the assistant at his shoulder.

After the game, Thomas Tuchel revealed that it was Anthony Barry who spotted the angle that changed the contest: move Declan Rice to right-back, overload the flank, and sharpen the quality of England’s service from wide areas.

“Anthony Barry had a brilliant idea to put Declan there,” Tuchel admitted, as quoted by The Sun.

The logic was simple but ruthless. Get Rice’s technique and vision into wider areas, ask him to whip in awkward, outswinging crosses, and give the opposition defence a very different problem to solve.

It worked. England’s right side, which had flickered rather than burned for long spells, suddenly crackled into life. Bukayo Saka found more space, more support, and more angles. With Eberechi Eze drifting and combining on that flank, the trio created a far more dangerous connection, stretching the game and prising open gaps that hadn’t been there before.

Tuchel didn’t try to claim the moment for himself. “To have his quality from the side, to get more difficult crosses in there, more difficult to defend, more crosses and outswingers,” he said, before pointing directly to the bench for the credit. “Also have a bit more support for Bukayo [Saka] and with Ebs [Eze] we had a bit more of a connection on the right side that helped and opened it up. So full credit to my assistant.”

The pressure eventually told. Rice played a key role in the build-up to the equaliser, stepping out from his makeshift defensive station to link play and keep England moving through the chaos.

But if the tactical board made it look neat, Rice’s experience on the pitch was anything but.

“It was probably the hardest 12 minutes of the game having a stint at right back,” the Arsenal midfielder admitted afterwards.

The match had opened up into the kind of end-to-end chaos no defender enjoys. “In games like that it was probably too much of a basketball match at times, back and forth, and we had to take the sting out of it because they have fast wingers.”

Rice has filled in on the flank before, but never pretended it was his natural habitat. “I have played there two or three times this season, I know the role, it is probably not my biggest strength but to do anything for the team and the manager,” he said. With the clock ticking down, there was no time for debate. “12 minutes left I said I would do my best and I think I did well there.”

He wasn’t blind to England’s flaws either. “I think we made more hard work of it than we needed to,” he reflected, a line that will echo with anyone who watched the game’s wild final passages.

For Tuchel and Barry, the gamble underlined the value of a sharp eye in the dugout and a willing, intelligent leader on the pitch. For Rice, it was another reminder that his influence stretches far beyond his preferred role at the base of midfield.