Thomas Tuchel takes responsibility for England defeat
Thomas Tuchel in an England World Cup press conference (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
England manager Thomas Tuchel has accepted responsibility for the 2-1 defeat to Argentina in the World Cup semi-final earlier this week.
The Three Lions are now preparing to take on France in the third place playoff match, with Didier Deschamps’ side having also been beaten in their semi-final, where Spain ran out 2-0 winners.
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If England can win tonight then it will still be their best World Cup performance since their only victory back in 1966, but of course much of the response to the Argentina defeat has been extremely negative.
Tuchel has come under fire for how he handled that game tactically, with Anthony Gordon’s goal having given England the lead until a late comeback in the final five minutes by the reigning world champions.
Thomas Tuchel defends tactical decisions against Argentina
Tuchel has insisted again that he has no regrets about how he set his team up to defend that 1-0 lead, even though to many viewers it looked like the German tactician made the decision to sit back and concede all possession to Argentina with about 20 minutes still to play.
The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager has attempted to explain himself, however, in his press conference quoted by BBC Sport.
“If you’re asking if I regret my decision, if this is the question, then I don’t regret my decisions,” he said.
“I took several decisions, trusting my instinct, my intuition, my experience, trusting my competitiveness, and I took the decision in order to help the team and get the result. We didn’t get the result.
“So I take, of course, the responsibility and for these decisions. I would regret if I didn’t help. I would regret if we didn’t react.”
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He added: “Why we defended in a deep block. Well, that’s what you do if you defend in a block. We were not active enough.
“They had a lot of offensive changes, and a lot of offensive positions. We could not stop the crosses, and we could not stop the runners into the box.
“So we decided to play a back five, to have more width in the field, to be closer to the guys who cross.
“We just became too passive, and Argentina, by the way, found another gear and they found the total flow.
“We played in the semi-final against the reigning world champions. We were 85 minutes 1-0 up. We played against the best player in the world, and we lost 2-1, which is painful.”
Can England close the gap with the elite teams?
England have once again come close on the biggest stage, but ultimately fallen a little short.
Tuchel’s appointment to replace Gareth Southgate was seen as the step needed to help the national team finally get their hands on a trophy.
England also made it to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals, whilst being beaten finalists in Euro 2020 and Euro 2024.
Once again, they just couldn’t quite get over the line despite what could largely be seen as a pretty positive tournament this summer.
Tuchel has suggested there is still a gap between England and top teams like Argentina and Spain, and that he will continue in the job in order to do his best to close that gap.
