Thomas Tuchel stood with his hands over his face. Unfortunately we have seen that anguished image far too often with England managers. A point against Ghana is hardly a disaster, and England are still firmly on track to win the group and qualify for the last 32 of this World Cup, but this was a bit of a reality check. And Tuchel knew it.

Having joyfully declared that he wanted the fans back home to have fun in the pubs after thrillingly beating Croatia 4-2 in the opening group fixture, this largely drab game – arguably the least enjoyable of the tournament so far – will have sobered them up.

If there was too much euphoria after Dallas then it was dampened down in the soggy Massachusetts air and there is a nagging sense that there is no way England can beat France, Spain or Argentina if they play like this. So maybe they will adopt Ghana’s approach.

It could have been worse. It could have been a defeat, with Ezri Konsa fortunate not to concede a second-half penalty when he launched himself to stop Ghana substitute Prince Kwabena Adu after the forward broke into the area. Even after that, Adu’s shot was going in before it struck a team-mate.

For England, substitute Nico O’Reilly came closest, hitting the crossbar with a header. The rebound fell to Harry Kane and the captain should have scored, but he uncharacteristically struck the ball over, summing up his team’s performance.

So it finished goalless. It is a remarkable and unwanted statistic that England have now produced that result in the second group game of each of the past four tournaments. How they desperately wanted to break that sequence, which is starting to feel like a quirky mental block. Is it just a lack of ruthlessness? After all they could have got the job done early.

Going into this match it was a record they were aware of and it has happened against Scotland, the United States, Slovenia and now Ghana – hardly giants of world football. Not since the 2018 World Cup in Russia – against Panama, their final group opponents, of course – have they won.

It was never going to be easy but England lacked the guile, lacked the game-breaker to make the difference while both substitute strikers sat on the bench. Go figure. A penny, also, for thoughts of Phil Foden, Morgan Gibbs-White or, in particular, Cole Palmer who were all left out of Tuchel’s squad.

Tuchel has gone for physicality, demanding a Premier League approach, with a reliance on pressing and set-pieces. And he almost came unstuck against a side who sat deep – or “deep, deep, deep,” as Tuchel’s assistant Anthony Barry put it – and picked their own moments. In that sense it did feel a bit like an English domestic encounter.

Against Panama, Tuchel will surely demand far more attacking threat and cutting edge from his team whose status among the favourites will have been diminished by this. Otherwise the optimism really will come crashing down and, as ever with England, the pressure will begin to mount. Not least on Tuchel.

The most damning verdict of all about this England performance? They simply were not brave enough – even as Tuchel ran through his substitutes, changed his attacking players and took off wingers Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon who both failed to take on their markers. It would be a surprise if they started the next game in New Jersey on Saturday.

Any hopes of resting players for that tie have gone out the window. In this most demanding of World Cups that is surely a blow to England’s planning. Tellingly there was also no playing of Oasis’s Wonderwall at the end – the new World Cup anthem was shelved – and it all added up to a sense that England were far too laboured, far too flat.

Instead the wonderwall belonged to Ghana and their powerful and organised defence with former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey stationed in front of it to great effect and with their wily coach Carlos Queiroz fuelling a cynical approach.

That was never more evident than with what happened at half-time.

The Portuguese, famously Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United, had successfully lobbied for Declan Rice to be booked for catching defender Jerome Opoku. Then he tried the same with Jude Bellingham, alleging he had kicked out at Opoku. Bellingham was having none of it. And fortunately neither was the Honduran referee. It would not be the last time England were indebted to Saíd Martínez.

Bellingham had grown increasingly irritated and there were angry words between him and Queiroz as they walked across the pitch at half-time with Tuchel eventually pulling his player away.

It was a 50th cap for Bellingham – at just 22 years and 359 days the youngest England player to reach that landmark – and he needed to keep his cool. Even if England needed to find a bit more fire. At least he kept going before, strangely, being substituted.

The final match statistics spoke to England’s supremacy: an XG of 1.29 to 0.29; 19 shots to two; 633 passes to 173 and 78.8 per cent possession. It is the most a team has had the ball at a World Cup without scoring.

Apart from the O’Reilly header/Kane chance and an effort from substitute Bukayo Saka that was excellently turned away by goalkeeper Benjamin Asare, what else did England have to show?

Despite protestations, the reality was that a draw was a fair result. After the weaknesses at the back against Croatia – which caused Tuchel to change half his defence – here the problem was at the other end of the pitch. Or, in fairness to Kane, a lack of imagination and spark to create chances for him. Kane had just 19 touches.

Tuchel later said he “could see it [this performance] coming”. If so, it raises the question – given his pedigree and pay grade – as to why he did not do enough to deal with it? We have lauded his in-game management. So criticism when it fails is also fair.