🏆 World Cup qualifying Player of the Week: A lion emerges

It's been a fascinating international break with 18 teams having booked their place at the World Cup .

But who impressed most with all eyes on North America and Mexico for next summer's tournament?

There are debuts, and then there are coronations. In the space of a week, Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson has managed something that most internationals spend a career chasing: two starts for England , two Man of the Match awards, and a country suddenly purring over his every touch.

It began against Andorra at Villa Park, a match that, truth be told, England laboured through. A 2–0 victory over the world’s 174th-ranked side will not live long in collective memory, but Anderson's performance might just jog a few thoughts.

Tasked with anchoring the midfield, the 22-year-old played as though he had been born for the role. He registered 114 attempted passes and found his man with 107 of them, a staggering 94% accuracy.

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He won seven duels, covered more grass than the Villa Park groundsmen, and even came within a whisker of capping his night with a debut goal.

Thomas Tuchel, never one for hollow praise, described his new man as “very, very good” and singled out his physicality and intelligence in the No 6 role. The statistics backed him up. Anderson’s figures were not just neat, they were imperious, the kind that speak of authority rather than caution.

For his troubles, he left the ground clasping the Man of the Match award, a quiet smile betraying what must have been a roar inside.

And if the Andorra game was a testing of the waters, Serbia in Belgrade was a full-blooded plunge. England dismantled their hosts 5-0 in what was comfortably the most complete display of the Tuchel era and potentially one of the best away performances from an England side this century.

– Tuesday, 9 September 2025

The headlines belonged to the goalscorers - Kane, Madueke, Rashford, Konsa and Guéhi - but once again, it was Anderson who knitted the spectacle together.

Operating with a serenity that belied the din of the Rajko Mitić Stadium, he dictated tempo, snuffed out danger and drove the Three Lions forward with a blend of precision and poise.

TalkSport rated him 9/10, calling him one of the brightest lights on the pitch. The Guardian were just as effusive with an eight.

The raw numbers glistened again: pass completion above 90 per cent, possession recoveries in double figures, and a progressive passing tally that kept Serbia penned back like cattle in their own half.

📸 Carl Recine - 2025 Getty Images

To record consecutive Man of the Match honours in your first two England starts is rare, to do it with such command is rarer still. Anderson has not just been tidy in Adam Wharton's place, he has been transformative, an instant mainstay in a midfield often criticised for lacking bite and balance.

In him, England suddenly see a player who marries the cold science of statistics with the warm artistry of movement.

Tuchel, barely months into his reign, may just have stumbled upon the keystone of his midfield architecture. For supporters, long starved of an heir to the metronomic calm of a Michael Carrick or the positional mastery of a Sergio Busquets, Anderson’s emergence feels like a revelation.

Two games, two trophies in miniature, and a reputation already gleaming. If this is the overture, one wonders what symphonies Anderson has yet to compose in the white of England .

📸 OLIVER BUNIC - AFP or licensors