Thomas Tuchel defended his defensive substitutions after England blew a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to Argentina in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday. The Three Lions took the lead through Anthony Gordon's tap-in after the break, but Tuchel then made a series of defensive changes that invited pressure from the defending champions.
Tuchel's defensive shift backfires
With 35 minutes remaining, Tuchel replaced Gordon with defender Ezri Konsa, switching to a back five. Ten minutes later, he brought on Dan Burn and Nico O'Reilly to shore up the defence. However, Argentina equalised through Enzo Fernandez's long-range strike and won it deep into added time via Lautaro Martinez's header.
England had just 12% possession between Gordon's goal and Martinez's winner, according to match statistics. Former England striker Wayne Rooney said Tuchel's decisions 'cost England the game'.
Tuchel: 'No regrets'
Speaking to BBC Sport after the match, Tuchel insisted he had no regrets. 'We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open,' he said. 'They won every header, they kept crossing and crossing. So we went to a back five to close the gaps inside and be stronger in the air.'
He added: 'Straight after our goal with no substitution, we just conceded way too many crosses and 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.'
Critics slam 'coaching catastrophe'
Former England striker Chris Sutton was scathing in his assessment. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: 'That was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative. Defending deep and another defender on, it's quite a simple game football; you have to get up the pitch.'
Sutton added: 'You can't expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina had. It's all on the coach where 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 team forward?'
Tuchel: 'The match changed completely'
Tuchel rejected the notion that England should have pushed for a second goal. 'Yeah, but it doesn't help if you don't have the ball,' he said. 'Of course we wanted to go for the second goal, but I didn't have the feeling that an offensive substitution would help.'
He continued: 'We stayed in our 4-4-2, but became more and more passive. We couldn't win any balls, couldn't keep the ball. So I think it was not a structural problem. We changed nothing after a goal, but the match changed completely.'
Tuchel also praised his team's performance: 'The team gave everything and we were very, very close. I think we deserved to be up 1-0. We played one of our better matches, maybe the best match in the circumstances. The team was top, but we couldn't bring it over the line.'
