This is not, it must be stressed, a criticism of Tuchel, whose tenure in its infancy.
It is simply a confirmation that providing the sort of thrill ride the German coach wants to serve up for England fans is easier said than done in these types of games with this team, and there is no quick fix to change that.
If Tuchel thought he could quickly blow away the cobwebs he believed had gathered on Southgate’s England, then his first two games in charge will have been a sobering dose of reality.
There has been little, so far, to distinguish Tuchel’s team from the one that went before it.
For long periods this was a deadly dull England performance.
Tuchel, in some respects, has made a rod for his own back with his deeply unflattering review of the Three Lions’ efforts in Germany last summer and his talk of change.
England did do some of the things their new boss demanded. He wants more touches in the opposition box – and that figure more than doubled from his first game against Albania, increasing from 34 on Friday to 69 against Latvia.
They put in 36 crosses on a night when they enjoyed 73.5% possession, but the end product was poor. Marcus Rashford improved slightly on his performance against Albania, but Jarrod Bowen could not make the desired impact as a replacement for struggling Phil Foden.
England sent in 21 of those crosses in the first half, the most in a game since they played Poland in October 2013 and delivered 25 – but their only goal game from James’ free-kick.
In a sign of England’s complete domination, they had 569 successful passes in Latvia’s half compared to the visitors’ 26 in theirs, and must be disappointed such overwhelming statistics resulted in relatively meagre results.
Tuchel wants to give England a fresh identity as they try to cross the psychological barrier from a nearly team to winners, but – as so often in the past – the acid test will only truly come when (it is hardly if) they qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Qualifying should be a formality from a group that also contains Andorra and Serbia, so the first high-quality opponents England are likely to meet will be when they get to the World Cup.
It is a situation they have been in before – and then been found wanting when it matters.
