Thomas Tuchel points blame for England heartbreak as boss slammed over collapse | Football | Sport

Thomas Tuchel pointed the blame at himself and took full responsibility after England collapsed late on to lose their World Cup semi-final 2-1 to Argentina. With just six minutes of normal time remaining in Atlanta, the Three Lions were leading and dreaming of a first final since 1966. But they ultimately paid for adopting a conservative approach after taking the lead, with Tuchel’s substitutions proving costly.

Tuchel took goalscorer Anthony Gordon off for Ezri Konsa in the 72nd minute, moving to a three-at-the-back formation. And with only eight minutes remaining, he brought on both Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly for Reece James and Declan Rice. But Tuchel’s side had no attacking outlet as Argentina piled the pressure on in search of an equaliser which eventually came when Enzo Fernandez fired in a 20-yard equaliser from a corner in the 85th minute. And Lautaro Martinez headed in a perfect Lionel Messi cross two minutes into stoppage time to complete the comeback and secure back-to-back finals for the holders.

Former England captain Wayne Rooney was strongly critical of Tuchel post-match on the BBC and said the German got his set-up wrong in the final stages. Rooney said: “It was a panic. You can’t go a goal up and surrender the ball and any opportunity to get the second goal. The pressure was on Argentina. If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you see the changes the manager is making at 1-0 up, you lose belief.

“I expected more in this game. I thought we could do a lot better, especially at 1-0 up. I think the decisions Tuchel made have cost us tonight. The changes didn’t help us. That’s what top managers do, they see the game. Top managers counteract what’s going on. They go more front-footed and try and change the tempo. I think he got it wrong.”

And grilled about his tactics, Tuchel said to the BBC: “We’re disappointed. We were so close. We got too passive after we scored and conceded a lot of chances. We could not turn the ball possession around and just conceded so, so many crosses and chances and shots.

“We were close but couldn’t keep the level up after we scored.” Asked specifically about his subs, the head coach said: “Yeah I did also offensive substitutions in the last games. We tried to help the players. We conceded straight away. We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open, they won every header and kept crossing and crossing.

“We went to a back five to close the gaps inside and be strong in the air because straight after our goal, with no substitutions, we conceded way too many crosses and way too many chances. We tried to help but of course the responsibility is on the coach. If it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to say it was wrong.

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“It doesn’t help if you don’t have the ball. We couldn’t get out. We wanted to go for the second goal but I had not the feeling that offensive substitutions would help. We stayed in our 4-4-2 but became more and more passive, we couldn’t win any balls or keep the ball. It was not a structural problem. We changed nothing after the goal, but the match changed completely.

“But it’s no problem, I can understand these discussions. You can discuss this with a million coaches. I have to make a decision on the pitch. I take the responsibility. No regrets in the moment. The team gave everything and we were very, very close.

“We deserved to be 1-0 up, we played one of our better matches, maybe the best match in the circumstances. The team was top. We couldn’t bring it over the line. No, in the moment, no regrets.”

Asked if England fans ever saw a ‘Tuchel team’, the confused German added: “I have no answer for that question because I don’t really know what that means. It’s… I don’t know. I think we saw the mentality throughout the match and the strong group and we played the matches how they were.

“We played against strong teams in the group and a lot of miles, a lot of travelling, we played at altitude, we played with 10 men, we played in the heat. We overcame every obstacle. We were very, very close today. It’s not the moment now to analyse the full tournament. We just went out because we lost a crucial match.”

Captain Harry Kane told the Beeb: “Just gutted, gutted for the boys, for everyone, the team, the staff, the fans. We played a good game for the large majority of it. Once we went 1-0 up, we seemed to try and hold on but at this level it’s not enough. Just gutting.

“We’ve worked so hard to be there and the lads have given every last bit of running, sweat, blood, tears, whatever it is. To fall short like we did today is just gutting. We struggled to get pressure on the ball [at 1-0]. First half and start of the second half we pressed them well and we put them under loads of pressure, especially high up the pitch.

“It allowed us to win balls and control the game a bit better. After the goal, whether it was them putting more men forward or us just not being able to match them man for man, it was just wave after wave. We were trying to hold on, lads were putting blocks in. In the end it wasn’t enough.

“The boys were ready for any moment in the game. When we went ahead, the message was to go again and get another goal. Once they scored their two goals, we tried to find something but we couldn’t quite get the momentum back in the game.

“We had a lot of good moments in this tournament, a lot of good games, another semi-final. We talk about knocking on the door. We’re close but we need to find that missing piece in the final stages of the tournament. These tournaments take it out of you. So much effort and pressure and mentality. We’ve shown a lot of that throughout the whole six or seven weeks we’ve been together but we’re just missing that final piece.”