Rice’s Bold Call at Right-Back Transforms England’s Game

Thomas Tuchel did not try to claim this one for himself.

When the game turned, he pointed straight to his assistant.

In the aftermath, Tuchel revealed that the decisive tactical tweak – shunting Declan Rice to right-back – came from Anthony Barry. It was a small change on paper, but it transformed England’s right flank and the quality of their service from wide areas.

“Anthony Barry had a brilliant idea to put Declan there,” Tuchel admitted, as quoted by The Sun. “To have his quality from the side, to get more difficult crosses in there, more difficult to defend, more crosses and outswingers.

“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 switch did exactly what it was supposed to: it tightened up England’s right, sharpened their delivery, and gave Saka the help he had been missing. With Eberechi Eze drifting into pockets and Rice stepping high from an unfamiliar position, that flank suddenly looked like a weapon instead of a weakness.

Rice, though, felt every second of it.

Rice’s Reluctant Shift

For the Arsenal midfielder, those closing stages were less about tactical theory and more about survival. Dropping into the back line in the middle of a frantic, end-to-end contest pushed him to his limits.

“It was probably the hardest 12 minutes of the game having a stint at right back,” Rice said after the game. “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.

“I think we made more hard work of it than we needed to. 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. 12 minutes left I said I would do my best and I think I did well there. Let’s see what happens next game but hopefully I don’t have to be at right back.”

He still found time to influence the game higher up the pitch, playing a key part in the build-up to the equaliser. Yet his own verdict was honest: this was a mental and physical slog, a spell spent firefighting in a game that had slipped into chaos.

The tactical call worked. The assistant got the credit. The manager backed it.

And Rice, stretched but unbroken, will now wait to see if that right-back experiment was a one-off – or the start of a new emergency option England are ready to use again.