England pundits round on Thomas Tuchel after semi-final defeat to Argentina
England took the lead in the second half but Tuchel’s defensive substitutions did not pay off.
Thomas Tuchel was heavily criticised after his defensive changes backfired in England’s World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina.
Anthony Gordon put England ahead in the 55th minute, but he was soon withdrawn by Tuchel, who brought on defenders Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly in the final 20 minutes.
His changes backfired as Enzo Fernandez equalised in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martinez struck a stoppage-time winner to earn a 2-1 win for Argentina.
England’s defensive approach to holding a lead carried eerie echoes of their Euro 2020 final loss to Italy, when former boss Sir Gareth Southgate was criticised in some circles for his tactical approach.
They fell on their swords again under Southgate in the Euro 2024 final against Spain, with the manager again criticised for his tactics in what proved to be his final game in charge.
Tuchel was hired to get England over the line in major tournaments, but his tactics in Atlanta frustrated former England and Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney.
Speaking on the BBC, the former England captain said: “If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up and you see the changes which the manager’s making, you’re losing belief, there’s only so many times you can get away with it.
“Then you start thinking, oh no we’re going to sit back for this long, how are we going to get through this?”
Rooney added: “It’s a panic, it’s a real panic. You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the strength of the ball and surrender any opportunity going to try and get the second goal because that’s what you want to do.
“If you let players of that quality have the ball around your penalty box, sooner or later they’re going to score.”
Tuchel’s changes were branded a “coaching catastrophe” by former Blackburn and Celtic striker Chris Sutton.
England’s route to the semi-finals began with a first-placed finish in Group L before securing wins against DR Congo, Mexico and Norway in the knockout stages, but fell short of their first World Cup final since 1966 with defeat to Argentina.
Sutton said on BBC Five Live: “It was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative, defending deep, another defender on.
“It’s quite a simple game football, you have to get up the pitch. You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina have and keep giving the ball back to them, that’s what England did and it’s all on the coach as far as I’m concerned.
“He made the changes, he was negative. So the question which I’m going to ask is, how can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this England team forward?
“I don’t care what anybody says, England have had a generous run in this competition, England haven’t played well in one 90 minutes in the World Cup.”
Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart drew tactical comparisons between Southgate and Tuchel.
He said: “I think Gareth Southgate will be at home watching this game, he took a lot of criticism when it came to the big moments with England when they had the lead and when they were in big games about shutting up shop.
“I don’t see anything’s changed in that big moment out there.
“Thomas Tuchel, for as much praise as we’ve given him, for him to change it as soon as he did, I think he realised that’s him saying he didn’t believe in his team, he didn’t think they could land any more punches on Argentina.”
Former England striker Michael Owen compared England’s performance to that of finalists Spain, who claimed a 2-0 victory over France in their final-four clash on Tuesday.
In a post on his official X account, Owen said: “Watch Spain at 1-0 last night. That’s courage. That’s bravery. And then watch England at 1-0. What’s the difference?
“We are a better team than Argentina, I’ve no doubt in my mind. But we deserved to get beat in the end. In fact, it could have been 4-1.
“Bringing on three defenders at 1-0 up. What message does that send?
“I wrote it in my Daily Mail column after the Mexico game. Until we understand that courage and bravery is controlling possession under pressure and not booting / heading it up the field 40 yards then this will always be the end result.”
Tuchel’s critics extended beyond England, with former World Cup winner and Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas offering a scything opinion.
In a post on his official X account, Casillas said Tuchel had “committed hara-kiri”, which is a traditional form of ritual suicide by disembowelment via abdomen cutting, practised notably by Japanese samurai.
Former Bayern Munich midfielder Thomas Muller, a World Cup winner with Germany in 2014, said in a video posted on X: “I cannot believe and understand how England approaches this game, especially after they are leading.
“I cannot understand, to invite the whole Argentina game to hit one cross after another from perfect crossing positions, but no matter…”