Thomas Tuchel's own words have come back to haunt him after England's World Cup final defeat to Argentina. In one of his first interviews as Gareth Southgate's replacement in early 2025, Tuchel criticised the previous regime for a lack of identity, clarity, and freedom, saying players were 'more afraid to drop out of the tournament than having the excitement and hunger to win it.' Now, after a 2-1 loss to Argentina, Tuchel faces the same accusations.
Defensive Collapse Under Tuchel
Opta stats reveal that in the 30 minutes after England took the lead, they had just 12% possession – the lowest by a team in the lead for at least 10 minutes at the World Cup in the last 60 years. Pundits heavily criticised Tuchel's tactical changes and substitutions.
Former England captain Wayne Rooney said: 'If you're an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up, and you see the changes that the manager is making, you're losing belief. And you're thinking there's only so many times we are going to get away with it. The changes we made didn't help us. It's a panic, a real panic, you can't go a goal up and then surrender the ball, surrender any opportunity to try to get the second goal.'
Mentality Questioned
Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart suggested the mentality Tuchel criticised had not changed. '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, but I don't see anything's changed in that big moment out there,' Hart said. '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 that he didn't believe in his team, they didn't think they could land any more punches on Argentina.'
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni offered a scathing analysis, saying he felt England were 'doubting themselves' as they got closer to the finishing line. 'We all felt it, we smelt blood and went for it,' Scaloni said. 'There was a vacuum inside [England's] goal. The ball went in after hitting the post twice. After England scored we showed a lot about our football. It's more than tactics and playing pretty football.'
Tuchel Defends Approach
Gary Lineker labelled Tuchel's decisions 'unfathomable', while Chris Sutton called it a 'coaching catastrophe'. Tuchel defended his approach, saying: '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.' Asked if England should have pushed for a second goal, he replied: 'Yeah, but it doesn't help if you don't have the ball. You can discuss this with a million coaches. I have to make a decision on the pitch. That's how I analysed the match and I took the responsibility. 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.'
