"They're still in the tournament," Kirkland exclusively tells Flashscore.
"Yes, we'd have liked to beat Ghana. We had nearly 80 per cent possession and we just couldn't get out of second gear. We huffed and puffed."
Credit, he insists, has to go to Ghana, who "deserved a draw in the end" after defending in numbers for 90 minutes.
But the more pointed observation is that England did most of their best work in a frantic late scramble rather than through anything resembling a plan.
Three shots on target, but none until the 57th minute, and the first game of the entire tournament to make it through a first half without either side troubling the goalkeeper.
"People say they just sat back and defended, but that's really tough to do for 90 minutes, and they deserved a draw in the end," he says.
Too many touches at the back
Then there's the Marc Guehi stat: 125 passes, the most by any England player in a World Cup match on record, but all sideways from a centre back. In isolation, it sounds impressive, but the figure has Kirkland slightly concerned.
"You'd want it to be one of your midfielders making that many passes, then you're on the front foot," he argues.
"Against one of the better teams, fair enough, your centre back is going to have to start more play. But against Ghana? That should be one of your forward players. It should be one of your attacking midfielders, one of the wide players - that's who you want having that many touches.
"It just goes to show why it was so lacklustre and laboured, because we were having too many touches at the back."
The heat, he reckons, has also been a major factor that people are underestimating. "You walk five yards, and everyone's like, 'Oh my God, it's the worst thing in the world.' Whether you're in an office or wherever, the heat takes it out of you. They're going to be out there, hopefully, for four or five more weeks, and they still won't be used to it. It takes a long time to acclimatise to weather you're not used to."
That doesn't quite explain Harry Kane's 19 touches, the fewest he's recorded in any 80-minute England tournament appearance on record. On whether Tuchel should have hooked him, Kirkland is unambiguous.
"You cannot take Harry Kane off at 0-0. As long as he's not signalling he's got an issue, you keep him on, because he can get you a goal out of nothing. If it's 3-0 or 4-0, fine, you rest him, but at 0-0, no. Michael Owen was the same. Do nothing for 88 minutes, then bang, two goals. The FA Cup final's the one to prove it, against Arsenal. Players of that ilk, you can't take off."
Lucky with decisions
Two refereeing moments arguably deserve more attention than they've had, at least in the English press. The Ezri Konsa challenge that wasn't given gets short shrift.
"For me, Ghana could quite possibly have had a penalty. If that's the other way round, an England player going down like that, we'd be screaming. We got away with one.
"He hasn't got the ball, he's brought him down, he's contributed to him going down. VAR get so much wrong - some of it is so blatant. If that was for us, everyone in the country would be screaming."
The Pickford rush-out, in which the foul somehow went England's way, could also have been more of a major talking point.
"It's tough sometimes," he says. "You rush out, and then you think, 'I'm in the wrong position here.' You get caught in no man's land. If you don't get the ball, do you take the man out or let him run by you and tap it in? If that's a foul too, then that's two we've got away with."
The Phil Foden and Cole Palmer conversation isn't going away, with many onlookers believing either one may have had the capability to find tighter passes to unlock Ghana's low block.
But Kirkland refuses to indulge the hindsight, and he maintains both were a "five and a half, six out of ten" at club level this season.
"If Tuchel had put them in, people would be saying they've not been good for City or Chelsea, why are they in there? If he'd left Anthony Gordon out for Palmer or Foden, people would have said Gordon's had a better season. You can't win. It's down to the players that are there."
'Just go for it'
Looking forward to Saturday's Panama assignment, then, and Kirkland wants to see the tactical shape rethought to better suit the opposition.
"You don't need two holding midfielders against Panama. When you name two sitters, it can dictate the way you play. Against the better teams, yes, you'll need that. Teams like Ghana aren't the same. If Declan's struggling with his ankle or calf, it might be him who rests. If we don't beat Panama, there's something seriously wrong."
His 11 brings Nico O'Reilly and John Stones back in alongside Guehi, with Reece James kept in if he's fit. Elliot Anderson holds alone. Jude Bellingham, Gordon, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins ahead of him, with Kane up top. Positive attacking threat should be the aim.
"I'd just go for it," Kirkland says. "They shouldn't cause us too many problems at all. If they do, we should have more than enough to get two, three, or four goals. I want to see a really, really attacking team.
"More attacking intent. Get the ball out quicker, get it wider quicker. Get it into those little pockets. Instead of an extra pass, get it forward. Sometimes we knock it sideways too much. The transition from defence has to be a lot quicker."
Shutting out the noise
He also recommends that everyone in the Three Lions camp do their utmost to drown out any outside noise, although, historically, that has been far easier said than done.
The press, predictably, are doing what the press do: hitting the panic button with bold headlines to generate clicks and newspaper sales. Kirkland has been around long enough to know the cycle and feels it often has a drastic impact on the international side.
"England could win the World Cup final 4-0, and some of the press would say it should have been 5-0. We have this every tournament. A lacklustre performance, and they jump on the players' backs.
"I've never liked it - it doesn't help. Not the players, not the squad, not the fans, because fans pick up on it and start parroting opinions that aren't even their own. That's just the world we live in."
England currently sit atop Group L, and will, in all likelihood, top it on Saturday too.
Whether that means much by the time the knockouts arrive and the serious contenders stand in the way is the real sticking point.
