Why did England struggle against DR Congo - and what can they learn? - Published It should not have been so hard for England against the 46th ranked team in the world. But Sebastien Desabre's remarkably brave DR Congo side caught England manager Thomas Tuchel's team off-guard with a formation shift which preyed on some of their vulnerabilities.

England laboured for much of the game before being rescued by the brilliance of two-goal Harry Kane. So, with England now facing the massive challenge of playing Mexico at the Azteca Stadium in the last 16, they will need to step it up. What will they have learned, and where will they need to improve tactically to beat the World Cup hosts?

DR Congo's dangerous build-up mirrors Mexico DR Congo set up in a 4-4-2 shape rather than their usual 5-3-2, and for more than just defensive reasons. Their play on the ball was among the toughest tests for Tuchel since the German took charge at the start of last year. With England intent on pressing high, DR Congo utilised their goalkeeper plus three players centrally in the build-up - outnumbering England's front two in Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham.

The DR Congo full-backs held their positions wide, pulling England wingers Marcus Rashford and Noni Madueke away from the central defenders. This spreading out of the back line made it hard for England to close the distance. At times it seemed it caught players in two minds as to whether they should press high or hold their position.

Sound familiar? Well, Mexico employ similar tactics, albeit with a 4-3-3 formation, using width and rotations to pull opponents away from passing lanes. The off-ball movement of DR Congo's midfielders dragged the likes of England midfielders Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson into unfamiliar positions, before attackers dropped unmarked into deeper positions - something striker Raul Jimenez has also done under Mexico boss Javier Aguirre.

If England are to mitigate some of these problems against Mexico, there are two main options. The first is to sit off more passively in a compact block, allowing the opposition to have more of the ball but preventing them the space to play through. The other option is to stick to a high-pressing approach but to tweak how that is executed.

Against teams that build up in a spread-out manner, this is always a tough ask but one solution may be in asking one of the central midfielders to join Kane and Bellingham, pressing man-to-man against the opponents' two centre-backs and defensive midfielder. This would require one of England's central defenders to step up and fill in the space behind Rice, but Marc Guehi is used to backing up the press in a front-footed manner like this at Manchester City. It is a game of trade-offs and Tuchel will have to decide whether he opts to drop off or defend more aggressively.

What he cannot do is end up in between the two, like England often did on Wednesday. England's on-ball struggles (and fixes) How a team defends is not done in isolation. In possession, tactics affect how well a team defends too.

With England having longer spells of possession in the second half, they were able to minimise the impact of DR Congo's build-up play.