‘Cowardly’ Thomas Tuchel blasted for ‘coaching catastrophe’ in England’s World Cup capitulation: Football legends lead outrage at Three Lions’ manager’s tactics after heartbreaking exit to Argentina
Thomas Tuchel was in the firing line after England were knocked out of the World Cup by Argentina on Wednesday; His tactics were described as ‘cowardly’ and a ‘coaching disaster’.
England were on the brink of their first World Cup final in 60 years after taking the lead through Anthony Gordon in the 55th minute, but Tuchel opted to park the bus rather than try for a second goal.
The German player started playing behind five when Gordon entered the game instead of Ezri Konsa in the 72nd minute. Declan Rice and Reece James made way for Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly after 10 minutes.
This left England vulnerable to high pressure from Argentina and the Three Lions faced wave after wave of attacks and eventually succumbed to two final goals from the defending world champions.
Enzo Fernandez equalized with a stunning strike in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martinez headed home the winner in the 92nd minute – both goals coming from assists from Lionel Messi.
Argentina will now be the side that will face Spain in Sunday’s New Jersey show, while England will compete with France for third and fourth on Saturday.
Tuchel insisted he had “no regrets” about his tactical decisions, claiming England’s problems began before any changes were made.
England were left vulnerable to Argentina’s high pressing and the Three Lions faced successive waves of attacks before eventually succumbing to two late goals.
After the match, Tuchel insisted he had ‘no regrets’ about his tactical decisions and argued that the problems started before any changes were made and that his team lost control after taking the lead.
Despite this, many, including World Cup winners Thomas Müller and Iker Casillas, insisted the blame should be left to the German coach.
Müller, who briefly worked under Tuchel at Bayern Munich between 2023 and 2024, said in a video published on X: ‘Argentina played a great game and I can’t believe and understand how England approached this game, especially after they were leading.
‘I can’t understand how they invite Argentina to play one perfect cross after another.’
Casillas, who won the World Cup with Spain in 2010, criticized England’s “cowardly” approach, allowing them to have only 12 percent of the ball after conceding the second goal.
“England score goals and then sit back, it’s a cowardly approach,” the former Real Madrid star said on X.
‘They stayed in their own penalty area and allowed Argentina to get more forward. The logical conclusion comes true.
‘England lost the match alone with this approach. They let Argentina do what they wanted. This cannot happen. ‘The final will be incredible.’
Former England striker Chris Sutton also criticized Tuchel, describing the defeat as a ‘coaching disaster’.
Former England striker Chris Sutton criticized Tuchel’s decision to leave key attacking players such as Marcus Rashford on the bench
Sutton said: ‘England took the lead and then gave the initiative to Argentina.
‘It’s a pretty simple game of defending deep and getting more and more defenders involved, football, you’ve got to get up the pitch.
You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina have. Everything that concerns me has to do with the coach. He made the changes.
“It was negative, so my question is: How can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this team forward?”
‘I don’t care what anyone says, England have performed generously in this competition and have not played well in the 90 minutes.
‘There’s a huge opportunity to get over the line against an average Argentina team in a World Cup semi-final and they didn’t look average in the last 30 minutes, not even far from that, but I think England helped them with that.
‘I think this is a coaching disaster. ‘There are definitely questions to be asked about Thomas Tuchel.
‘When we looked at the game and the way it went, it was down to his coaching. It was supposed to be positive, but it was extremely negative. It could have been more positive with a player change.
Ollie Watkins and Marcus Rashford were on the bench. So why not remove Harry Kane, who appears to be a passenger? He’s got a lot of questions to answer.’
Roy Keane, meanwhile, took issue with Tuchel’s post-match press conference, particularly his insistence that England had ‘played one of our better games, perhaps our best game in these circumstances’.
To talk Stick to football Keane said: ‘This is nonsense, that’s what I have to say. We can’t say they played our best game; They didn’t play our best game.
‘How many touches did you make on the box? Seven? If you’re playing your best game and have seven touches in the box, you’re not asking yourself much. ‘There were 28 in Argentina.’
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