Are we not ENTERTAINED?

 Well, YES - I think we are!

At least if we're not Roy Keane - who only rated England's performance against Latvia as a 'C+'. But he is a curmudgeonly so-and-so, and slightly untethered from reality. And not an England fan!!

I'm more inclined to give our first two outings under Tuchel a solid 'B' score,.... very nearly a  'B+'.

Albania and Latvia aren't terrible sides; and they defended very resolutely (their keepers both had excellent games). It's fatuous to expect any longer that the smaller nations are invariably going to be a pushover, ever ripe for a 5-0 spanking. Dominating possession, creating plenty of chances, and ultimately coming out comfortable winners in both games is all that we could have wished for.

No, we didn't produce scintillating football - but you can't do that when the opponents just camp in front of their penalty box for most of the game. We did produce effective football: calm, patient, thorough - successful.

Even more encouraging was the clear evidence of a new approach from the new manager. Under Southgate, the national side had often seemed to lack any clear 'identity'; indeed, in the last Euros, the players often appeared to have not much idea of what they were supposed to be doing. Here they clearly did understand the system they were supposed to be playing, they bought into it, and it worked.

I'm particularly pleased to see that Tuchel was following the same kind of nominal 4-2-3-1 lineup I'd advocated last week, and largely the same personnel I'd predicted. I even liked the changes he made for the second game: not excessive - but thoughtful and useful: starting Bellingham deeper in midfield, giving Morgan Rogers a try-out as a No. 10.

I still have a few gripes and misgivings. I suppose Jordan Henderson and Kyle Walker were included for their 'dressing-room leadership' - but if they're not fancied as starters any more (and they certainly shouldn't be!), that seems a wasteful use of squad places to me. I'd rather see some more young players getting phased into the setup instead.

Reece James and Marcus Rashford seemed like 'charity case' selections to me. They didn't do badly, but... I feel they haven't yet played often enough and well enough for their clubs recently to merit an international call-up; they were being chosen on the basis of past glories and/or presumed future potential... and, I imagine, to try to give them a psychological lift by making a major show of confidence in them. A kind and noble gesture, I suppose; and it might work out,.... if it helps them to rebuild their careers and become valuable members of the national side again. But I'm very sceptical about the prospects for that: Rashford has always been too inconsistent, too mentally fragile; James, alas, too hopelessly injury-prone. I don't foresee any more of a future for these two with England than I do for the has-beens Walker and Henderson; and, as with them, I think their inclusion here was unfairly excluding other players who deserved a chance

And Levi Colwill?! That's a complete head-scratcher to me. I think the squad needed a specialist left-back as back-up for Lewis-Skelly; and at the moment that should probably be Tyrick Mitchell. And if he was viewed simply as a back-up centre-back, surely Jarrad Brandthwaite ought to be ahead of him in the pecking-order!

And where were Adam Wharton, Angel Gomes, Harvey Elliott? For me, those players need to become regular squad members soon.... and possibly regular starters within a year or two.

But heck, an England manager would be no fun if we could agree with everything he did, would he? Overall, I'm fairly impressed with Tuchel's debut; it's given England fans a lot of grounds for optimism.