Jordan Pickford didn’t concede a single goal during England’s qualifying campaign, but he can expect to be more regularly tested at this World Cup.

England’s centre back situation is probably one of the main reasons as to why people don’t have them in the same bracket as France and Spain to win the World Cup. Marc Guehi and Ezri Konsa are a decent partnership, but how will they fare in the latter stages of the tournament against some frighteningly good frontlines? 

This puts Pickford in the limelight, and I think this is actually where he’s at his best. He averaged 2.63 saves per 90 for Everton during the 25/26 campaign. Only three sides kept more shutouts than the Toffees in the Premier League, so Pickford can atone for the lack of quality and depth that England have at centre back.

At the last Euros, Pickford was forced into making 18 stops across seven matches (2.35 per 90), with a save percentage of 75%.

I do think England may have to score more than once to win this game. Croatia may be an ageing side, but they do have real threats who can cause the Three Lions problems, having won seven of their eight qualifying matches themselves.

Croatia also have a very consistent record at international tournaments over the last few years. They beat England 2-1 in the 2018 World Cup, with the sides also facing each other in the Nations League over the last few years, with England getting their revenge in those matches.

England have seen 2+ goals in nine of their last 11 matches across all competitions, with the exceptions being friendly matches against Japan and New Zealand.

Tuchel has already outlined his plan for England at this World Cup, and a large part of that strategy will be to make the most of corners and set pieces.

This has been a running trend throughout the Premier League season, and Tuchel is insistent that he wants his side to mirror the style and approach of the domestic division, so we can expect quite a direct and physical style of play from England throughout the summer.

England averaged 7.5 corners per game during qualifying, confirming this avenue as quite an important route to goal for Tuchel’s side. The way England play should also lend itself to high corner counts, with the likes of Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke set to be direct runners in the wide areas when Harry Kane drops into deeper pockets.

Elliot Anderson is going to be a key player if England are to go deep at this World Cup. He’s impressed in every game he’s played for England under Thomas Tuchel and is now one of the first names on the team sheet.

He's really good at winning fouls. He was hauled down on five occasions when England faced Costa Rica in their final warm-up game and won 80 fouls across his 37 appearances during the 25/26 campaign for Nottingham Forest in the Premier League (2.16 per 90).

This record stays pretty consistent when we look at his qualifying data. He started four games and won eight fouls (1.95 per 90), also having 126.7 touches per 90 - which is a great indicator when backing players to win fouls, as he is clearly the tempo-setter in the England squad.

Tbh, this is pretty self explanatory.

One of my first times trialling this new market, and I think Modric is perfect for it.

When looking into the bet, a key pass is defined as 'the final pass leading to a shot at goal from a teammate' so I did some deep diving into his stats for those.

When looking purely at his Qualifying stats, he managed two key passes leading to shots against the Faroe Islands and Gibraltar, and managed four against Montenegro.

He managed at least one key pass leading to a shot in every single qualifier, that's 8/8, and that includes him playing limited minutes in in most of those games, for example against Gibraltar he managed two in just 21 minutes.

You also get a shot created if he manages an assist, or wins a penalty leading to a scored penalty. He managed two assists across just four starts in Qualifying, giving us even more opportunity to land this bet.

Anderson was quality for cards in the Premier League, picking up eight for Forest, and I can see him being integral doing a lot of the dirty work in that England midfield.

Throughout the qualifying games, he committed the joint most fouls (8), and was statistically the best player per90 for fouls committed (1.95).

He's against an experienced Croatia side, and is also likely to be brought out of position at times to defend against Perisic, who despite playing as a defender, is one of the key attacking players for the opposition.

Anderson also gets fouled for fun, he was fouled five times against Costa Rica, so there's the slight chance he loses his temper.

Kovacic had limited minutes in qualifying, so it's tough to base off that, and he's also rarely played for City this season. But I feel a lot of this plays into it, he will be lacking match fitness compared to his opponents.

He's now likely to be up against the likes of Anderson and Bellingham. Players who consistently win fouls, in qualifying Bellingham won 2.56 fouls per90. Anderson won 1.95 per90, and was also fouled five times against Costa Rica.

I see him getting caught out at least once, and potentially committing a tactical foul or two to avoid going behind.