Thomas Tuchel delivered England the exact history it tried to escape
ATLANTA — Harry Kane would not directly indict his manager, but the England star’s words were damning all the same.“It’s a similar story to what’s happened in previous tournaments,” Kane said, heartbroken, after his team was on the wrong end of an Argentine remontada for the ages, 2-1 with both goals after the 85th minute to sink England in the World Cup semifinals.In other words, it is the story that England fired Gareth Southgate for writing too many times, and which it hired Thomas Tuchel to avoid.The Three Lions led Croatia 1-0 in the 2018 World Cup semifinal before sitting back and losing in extra time.They led the 2021 European final 1-0 over Italy and sat back before losing on penalties.
They were conservative against Spain in the 2024 European final, too, though without ever leading.Why, why, why, then, up 1-0 against an Argentina team that has come back again and again in this World Cup, did Tuchel make three straight defensive substitutions and invite pressure?No one can deny that England needed Dan Burn on the field given how dangerous Argentina’s crosses looked, with Burn’s height such a weapon.But bringing on Ezri Konsa for goal scorer Anthony Gordon, bringing on Nico O’Reilly for Declan Rice and dropping into a deep block with a back five are decisions that should and will haunt Tuchel.You can’t guarantee that England would have won the game had Tuchel done something different.
He was right to point out that something had to change, that England was losing duels and leaving gaps.Still, was this not the moment for Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze or even Kobbie Mainoo — whose lack of playing time all tournament was simply bizarre? Sitting in a low block against this Argentina team, for that long, was always going to yield the same result as making no changes at all.Anyone could have seen that.“I think when we were in a 4-4-2 defending, we were conceding a lot of chances, so something had to change, and we’ve been pretty solid when ...