England player ratings v Spain: Trafford, White, Hall, Bellingham brilliant but two let the team down

England were exceptional in beating world champions Spain to win their Nations League group – but who let the team down in victory?

And far less interestingly, which players proved their worth to Thomas Tuchel?

JAMES TRAFFORD
Thanks for the memories, Jordan Pickford. But your work is done. England couldn’t have reached this point without you. But look at Trafford – he is the captain now.

After waiting more than 70 minutes to make his first save, Trafford subsequently produced six of increasing brilliance until his magnum opus: pawing Lopez’s snapshot away before somehow scrambling to his feet quickly enough to tip Laporte’s follow-up around the post.

It was the second double save in the space of ten minutes from the first legitimate rival to Pickford’s gloves in a decade. Trafford was composed on the ball, too: his 11 passes into the final third were the most of any player on either side, and his roll-out led to the corner for Konsa’s goal.

BENJAMIN WHITE
Steve Holland did die for this.

Didn’t have many notes on White, beyond him being implicated in some mild half-time commotion. Then he put England 3-0 up against the world champions with a wonderful overlapping run and finish. That block on Williams at 3-2 was arguably even better.

EZRI KONSA
Must have done something awfully grievous to Sam Matterface for the commentator to not only award his third England goal to Jarell Quansah, but also to announce he had been sent off for an Anderson challenge Konsa was ten yards away from.

It was a superb run and header for Arsenal’s second, with Konsa marshalling the resistance in the closing stages.

JARELL QUANSAH
It felt like Quansah had been specifically directed not to take more than one touch at a time, such was his admirable insistence on getting rid immediately when the ball reached him. The eye test and statistics were aligned, too: Quansah’s 16 clearances and headed clearances were at least nine more than any other player.

Had he added another this would probably have been his best England performance yet. But Quansah instead fell into Yamal’s trap, got a team-mate sent off and condemned his side to a really quite uncomfortable half an hour.

Quansah, to his credit, responded well enough and regained his composure when others might have crumbled. But his 11 England caps already feature an awkward amount of individual error.

LEWIS HALL
That really does appear to be England’s left-back dancing into the Spain penalty area. It can’t be, of course. That would be preposterous. But it absolutely did look like a player Manchester United decided not to sign because this summer transfer window was assigned specifically to midfielders two years ago and Andrey Santos’ don’t come cheap.

Having to handle not only Yamal but also referee Clement Turpin’s mollycoddling of the Barcelona forward, Hall rose to the challenge with an absurd degree of plomb. There was some vital defensive work when Simon sliced England open with a lines-breaking pass in the first half, but at no stage did the Newcastle left-back allow those responsibilities to hinder his attacking contributions.

It was much more of a struggle with ten men, but when the numbers were even Hall was arguably the game’s best player.

ELLIOT ANDERSON
For 62 minutes, largely resembled a man unencumbered by the responsibility of covering for Enzo Fernandez. In that hour Anderson displayed the positional intelligence, anticipation and quickness of feet required to keep the pressure on Spain, at one stage winning the ball on the edge of the area to set up a Kane shot, then later releasing the captain with that exceptional, Cucurella-crunching through ball.

May well have enjoyed his break from Fernandez, but Quansah selflessly eased that transition and granted Anderson the next international break off.

JUDE BELLINGHAM
It is mad that England boast the best player in the world. It is funny that Bellingham, not brilliant Ballon d’Or winner Kane, is that player.

He’s just stupidly, often unfairly good. Bellingham gets credit for a) keeping the ball for the move which led to the penalty, b) winning the corner which made it 2-0, and c) setting up the third goal with a delightful pass to split five Spain players.

Beyond his part in all three goals, Bellingham was the driving force towards a sensational win. His power, poised and ball-carrying ability is ludicrous. He completed all five of his dribbles, won 11 of his 12 duels and dragged England through on his own at times like the big divisive soloist he definitely is.

DECLAN RICE
A relatively quieter game, but no less impressive to anyone not named Graeme Souness. Rice’s sense of adventure gradually dissipated after the early stages in which he won the ball on the edge of the Spain area from a Simon pass and then overlapped to win a corner. As the game settled he retreated into that “cheating” position more and helped guide England through with some fine old man football.

Weird, then, that he definitely decided to draw parallels with the rather less successful Argentina game afterwards.

MORGAN ROGERS
Would be willing to bet that he covered more distance than any other player, with Rogers helping White lock down Spain’s admittedly rather neglected left side down. The rest of the Chelsea forward’s game was summed up by broadly poor execution of good ideas, such as his back-post dink to Bellingham when a shot might have been wiser.

One lovely run in the second induced a Cucurella booking, which is always fun.

HARRY KANE
Entirely and hilariously schooled Pau Cubarsi to win a penalty he duly converted, with Kane accepting he couldn’t outpace his opponent from Anderson’s ball and instead slowing the game down, luring the centre-half in and shifting away with an extra touch to provoke the foul.

It was exceptional centre-forwarding, matched by the quality of his hold-up play thereafter as England’s gameplan shifted. Kane’s work for the White goal will be buried under yet another goal and how his team-mates were trusted to see out the win without him.

ANTHONY GORDON
That is one mightily frustrating error for the second Spain goal, so good had Gordon been to that point.

He forced Pubill off with an early injury, believed to be a bruised ego, after some relentless work down the left. Gordon’s direct running was the source of the majority of England’s early non-pressing attacks, while his work ethic was underlined by robbing Zubimendi in the middle of the pitch at one point.

Finding himself there again in the second half at 3-1 felt hubristic and was duly punished by Pedri as Gordon ambled into a blind alley when simplicity – so often his strength – was key.

Nailed his analysis, though.

MYLES LEWIS-SKELLY (on for Kane, 77)
Maybe not the man for that particular job: had one touch and misplaced the only pass he attempted.

DJED SPENCE (on for Bellingham, 83)
Also misplaced his only pass, but had four touches.

DOMINIC CALVERT-LEWIN (on for Gordon, 83)
Misplaced all three of his passes and had the most unsuccessful touches of any player, level with Yamal on four in slightly less time. But only one of those men won.

DAN BURN (on for White, 89)
You can’t misplace a pass if you don’t attempt one [insert Roll Safe GIF]. Burn will have enjoyed his Mexico-lite cameo.