Winged witches or worries? England and Norway have decisions to make more | 2026 World Cup

Although the focus will be on Harry Kane and Erling Haaland ahead of the England-Norway game, nothing is unclear. They will play. They will probably score goals.

Of particular interest is who Thomas Tuchel and Ståle Solbakken choose to use as their wing players. No team finished a game this summer tied with the wide receivers who started it.

England used Anthony Gordon and Marcus Rashford on the left, with Arsenal’s Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka covering the rest of the attack.

“All four wingers are competing against each other at a very high level,” Tuchel said after the opening match against Croatia. With none of the quartet completing more than 57% of their World Cup minutes or starting more than three out of five games, the competition is fierce.

Tuchel seems unsure about his favorite duo. He tried five out of six combinations, Gordon and Rashford understandably not a good pairing as they both favor the left. The manager’s decisions during the match will be related to scoring but he will change his players up front and at the start of each match.

Jarell Quansah’s red card against Mexico affected that game this time. Saka was withdrawn shortly after the full-back was sent off in the 54th minute, leaving England playing without wings.

One pattern has emerged. In England’s last three games, the starting players are the same players who finished the previous game.

The choices may have been influenced by the style of play Tuchel required for a particular opponent. Gordon leads the squad in the average length of the ball handled in the World Cup, at 14.9 meters, while Madueke is the highest in the distance taken in 90 minutes, at 255.8 meters.

Rashford is England’s leading midfielder for playing at least five meters and finishing with a shot, scoring one against Croatia. Only two players in this competition have created more goals after Saka’s carry, one of them being Norwegian winner Andreas Schjelderup.

His debut came when Solbakken made 10 changes in the team’s last game against France. After assisting Haaland in both goals against Brazil, the 22-year-old could be in the XI against England.

But Solbakken is more organized using wing players than Tuchel. The duo of Antonio Nusa and Alexander Sørloth started three of the four ‘first team’ games, with Schjelderup and Oscar Bobb finishing each of those.

All four of the assists provided by these players came from the left, so it will be necessary for whoever sits on the right back of England to cut off the supply line for Haaland.

In Norway’s backline, the task of dispelling a threat in wide areas is very different, even if the need to keep one of the world’s best strikers out of the game remains the same. Kane or Haaland may grab the headlines but the success of their wingers may decide the outcome.