Everyone you speak to around the England camp highlights one reason why supporters left the USA this summer with that familiar feeling of deja vu.

There are no questions about talent. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are strong contenders for the Ballon d’Or. Barcelona made Anthony Gordon their latest star. There are multiple £100m midfielders vying for places.

Plenty questioned whether Thomas Tuchel was to blame for another near miss. Did he go too negative, too early against Argentina? Was a six-man defence ever going to stifle the genius of Lionel Messi?

Yet, around England’s St George’s Park training base, the Tuchel naysayers are in short supply. Those above him, who conducted a full and “frank” review after the World Cup, believe the German is really trying to build something, at a time when revolution is again in full swing in Burton upon Trent.

And Tuchel, as well as his players, believe there is only one way to right the age-old English wrong.

“Culturally, it’s not just that tournament or that game where we couldn’t control a game,” Gordon said. “As a nation, England do not have that strength like the Spanish, where we control games like they do. It’s not in us.

“I’m not sure it can be taught. Playing in Spain I can speak with an educated view, and the way they keep the ball is different to what I’ve experienced playing in this country.

“I’m not sure we can ever get that but we can definitely get better, or maybe go the other way and really play to our strengths, which is to play physical, direct football and on the counter-attack. There’s no perfect way to win a football match.”

Tuchel has been in combative mode since returning from the summer’s heartbreak. In a chat with a small number of journalists last week, things got a little heated when pressed over previous comments about the English DNA.

The German seemed taken aback by how dumbfounded the room was over claims he “does not have time” to coach England to be like Spain. Questioning whether controlling games, passing their opponents into submission, was something fans even wanted.

Mentally, England aren’t getting over the line, in contrast to a less vaunted Spain group, because they lack the game intelligence of their Iberian rivals, who are preparing to showcase such controlling talents on Saturday at Wembley.

But Tuchel’s England aren’t going to change their ways. If they are finally going to end 60 years of hurt, they are going to do it the English way.

“The general messaging is that we continue what we’ve been building,” captain Harry Kane said. “Sometimes after a tournament, it’s easy to say we start fresh or it’s a new start, but I don’t think it is that. It’s a continuation.

“Those are the questions that we need to kind of discuss amongst ourselves and answer ourselves, as players and as coaching staff, ‘how can we be better in those moments? How can we be ourselves more in those moments?’

“And it may be a mixture of things – it may be personalities. It may be mentality. It may be just the direction and how we want to play in those games. So let’s continue what we’ve done because we have done a lot of good things. We can’t just overlook that because we didn’t get the result that we wanted.”

And after listening to a spiky Tuchel, that means there will be no replication of any Pep Guardiola-inspired tiki-taka. The German is not for turning. England will continue to “go for it” and not look “for that late 1-0”. The quest is to find a suitable compromise between the gung-ho and the conservative.

St George’s Park is amid its latest rebrand. Overseen by Dan Ashworth, in a new role as chief football officer, the man who helped build the state-of-the-art facility, is aware the base has fallen on hard times and is now somewhat outdated.

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Renovations are to begin in earnest, with a home European Championship on the horizon. But it is not just the physical that will be reconstructed once more.

Ashworth, along with Gareth Southgate, helped instil excellence at all levels, giving a greater pathway to the top, which saw various youth teams go on to glory.

Their mission remains incomplete, as the fledgling promise ultimately led to senior disappointment. Tuchel and the powers that be at St George’s Park think they are almost there.

Game management and that English mental block is still to be overcome. And it is what everyone will be focusing on, in all departments, for the foreseeable future.