England's 2025 summer somehow manages to be pointless and necessary - Stuart Rayner

That is the kind of no-win situation the Three Lions find themselves in for a friendly more important and hopefully more competitive than the competitive game days earlier.

The over-riding feeling watching England labour to victory over Andorra in Barcelona on Saturday was that it was time for a rest.

Tuchel, though, has not given himself any time to sit still with all his eggs in the basket of next summer's World Cup in north America.

Tonight could be the first time Bukayo Saka, one of his best players, wears the Three Lions for him, and the first time someone other than Jordan Pickford is in goal, probably former Sheffield United loanee Dean Henderson.

It has been a long season for England's top players, most of whom have been appearing in bloated European competitions as well as demanding domestic campaigns on the back of reaching the final of last season's European Championship, on the back of a draining 2023-24.

Not that it spared them from Tuchel's stinging criticism after an uninspiring 1-0 win. He has set a short fuse on his tenure by only agreeing a contract until next July.

Odd-numbered years are supposed to be when players replenish energy and perhaps at times enthusiasm – that bit probably goes for supporters too – to can give their all when it really matters.

FIFA – and UEFA – greed threw that out of the window long ago.

Instead, Jude Bellingham, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Conor Gallagher, Harry Kane, Cole Palmer, Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill, Reece James and the one shining light of the win over Andorra, Noni Madueke, are heading to America to try and make world football's governing body even richer in a Club World Cup.

But Tuchel cannot really leave them at home.

"We need to worship training, we need to worship every minute in matches," said a coach who has only had 11 training sessions in his first six months. "It's good to see players in tight situations and in moments when things are not easy."

If only there were more of them.

Tuchel needs opportunities to work with his players but qualifiers are not testing England. As the 19th best team in the world by FIFA's reckoning, Senegal should be more able to do that than Andorra were.

The Nations League is the only meaningful competition England get outside of major tournaments, yet Tuchel opted out of the final two matches of 2024, preferring to start in the new year.

Even when England are lethargic or unserious as Tuchel would have it, they still tend to win qualifiers. They have played three won three, conceded none under him.

So he needs to demand performances as well as results, which is why he has been scathing in some of his post-match reflections.

"I said no names of players and it is not an individual matter," he said in his defence, although he did call out Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden by name after March's game against Albania.

"We simply did not match our own standards. I did not like the last 10 minutes because I felt on the sideline we didn't play seriously enough.

"There are no messages that I give via a press conference. Everything I say here, I already said to the players. Why should we sugarcoat it? We can handle criticism."

This matter-of-fact approach needs to apply to team selection too. If Madueke keeps outperforming the more celebrated Foden, Rashford, Jack Grealish and co, he has to start the games that matter. Tuchel does not have the time or the inclination to worry about egos.

Declan Rice could be causing him a problem by being so good further forward as a midfielder with Arsenal after England had nailed him down as their holding midfielder.

Balancing talent is Tuchel's main task and needs time on the grass.

But the real banging together of heads needs to be over the format.

What did either team gain from Saturday's game, which did not provide much entertainment for the paying fans? The expected walkover would have not been much better.

The final stages of this year's Nations League showed what proper competitive football looks like.

Every country should have the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup, but the team ranked 173 in the world versus the No 4 seeds in front of fewer than 9,000 fans in a 40,000-capacity stadium in another country at the end of a long season felt too much like a waste of time.

Rather than spread the quality so thinly and overloading players, as FIFA are doing with the tournament itself, perhaps use the Nations League as pre-qualifying for a smaller, sharper qualifying stage?

The stronger nations could feel a bit of jeopardy, fans get quality over quantity and lesser nations can get better by playing more meaningful football amongst themselves to try to reach the next qualifying cycle.

What we have now feels both pointless and for Tuchel very necessary.