STADION HNK RIJEKA – Poor Thomas Tuchel. Even when his team deliver a performance as breathtaking as this – a display among their best ever away from Wembley – he’s doomed to be buried by ‘what ifs’.

An ageing Croatia in the Nations League on a cool October’s night is not the same as Argentina in the white heat of a World Cup semi-final in Atlanta. But, for the third successive game, Tuchel picked a team to tear into the opposition and the regrets flowed almost as freely as the goals against the desperate Croatians.

The biggest one here? Alex Scott. The brilliant Bournemouth playmaker was available to Tuchel in the summer but he was overlooked in favour of Jordan Henderson and Kobbie Mainoo.

Scott was in Orlando before the serious stuff started but Tuchel took him as a training player, not even rewarding him with a first cap in the pre-tournament scratch games. As far as misjudgments go, that is an all-timer.

Veteran Henderson got the nod instead, largely for vibes and to act as Jude Bellingham’s minder during the tournament. Henderson might be a good tourist, but the folly of that approach came home to roost against Argentina, when England had only one gear and it was reverse.

What could Scott have done in that game, dovetailing with the equally industrious Elliot Anderson as he did here?

We’ll never know, but it has to be an option for England going forward. They were so good in Rijeka that it felt like the absent Declan Rice has been formally put on notice.

There were a lot of good performances in red but on his full England debut it was Scott who stood out. He might have the look of a Jack Grealish regen with his rolled down socks and tiny shinpads but in reality he’s something entirely different – an English midfielder who can do the Frank Lampard energy thing while carrying the ball like he’s come out of a Spanish or Portuguese finishing school.

It was a subtle but important shift for England and had a big impact here. They were on the front foot throughout and Scott’s desire to move the ball into dangerous areas at pace is a very useful weapon for England moving forward.

The greatest compliment you could pay him is that he didn’t look at all out of place behind a front four that currently looks the equal of any in world football.

It was a lesson for Croatia and the 6,000 noisy school kids allowed into the Stadion HNK Rijeka for a supposedly behind-closed-doors game. It was meant to be a nice touch from the Croatian FA to salvage something after Uefa punished them for racism in the stands – in the end it was child cruelty.

England made Croatia look like Andorra or San Marino, hitting seven but missing enough chances that it could have been ten. Their press was relentless, their finishing utterly ruthless. And in Jude Bellingham, they have a player who is surely destined to go on and become one of the England greats.

Bellingham was majestic here, striding through white and red shirts at will, equally comfortable doing a Bryan Robson battling midfield impression as he was making those Frank Lampard-esque late attacking runs that so often seem to bring England goals.

He made England’s first – supplying Harry Kane with a superb sliding pass – and then created and tucked home their second, digging a pass to Anderson when he was fouled to start the move that ended with him applying a close-range finish. A goal and three assists in the end for the No10 tells the story.

Anthony Gordon was equally as good. He has had a superb international break, following on from an effervescent end to his World Cup campaign, and offered irresistible threat down the left.

The Barcelona winger scored (again) with his head (again) and missed a one-on-one almost identical to the goal he plundered against Spain. It seems quaint that there was a live debate about whether he should be a starter during the World Cup.

Bukayo Saka, like captain Kane, scored twice, the second a late gift presented to him by Josip Stanisic, before Tuchel made substitutions that disrupted the rhythm and eased Croatia’s suffering.

This time, he could be forgiven, such was the brilliance of England’s performance.