World Cup 2026: England coach Thomas Tuchel defends semi-final tactics in Argentina loss
When asked how he evaluated the last 35 minutes of the match, when he had time to think, Tuchel said he felt that “equally, we were too passive”.
“If you’re asking if I regret my decision, if that’s the question, then I don’t regret my decisions,” he added.
“I felt the momentum change in the match. And I tried to help my team…
“I made a lot of decisions relying on my instincts, my intuition, my experience, my competitiveness, and I made this decision to help the team and get results. We didn’t get results.”
“So of course I take responsibility for these decisions. I would have regretted it if I had not helped. I would have regretted it if we had not reacted.”
Tuchel said he was not willing to engage in “that kind of game” over who was to blame.
“No problem,” he said. “This is the agreement you agreed to, but I will not participate.
“For me, there’s no one to blame. If you need someone to blame, I’ll take responsibility. I’m the head coach.”
Asked why England’s record goalscorer Kane was playing so deep in the final stages, he said: “What do you mean? Like in the last 30 minutes?”
“Why did we defend in a deep block? That’s what you do when you defend in a block. We weren’t active enough.”
Tuchel said Argentina “played with great momentum after our goal.”
“There were a lot of attacking changes and a lot of attacking positions,” the 52-year-old added.
“We couldn’t stop crosses and we couldn’t stop runners entering the box.
“That’s why we decided to play with five backs to have more space on the pitch and be closer to the crossers.
“We became too passive and meanwhile Argentina found another gear and they found the total flow.
“We played against the last world champion in the semi-finals.
“We were 1-0 up for 85 minutes. We played against the best player in the world and lost 2-1, which is very painful.”
Tuchel was asked whether he had investigated data showing England’s physical performance levels against Argentina were lower than in the match against the Democratic Republic of Congo, played in the same stadium earlier in the tournament.
“Although we don’t want to admit it because it sounds like an excuse,” he said that the 10-man Mexico game at Azteca Stadium and the match against Norway in Miami “cost us more than we thought.”
“The players literally gave everything physically [in] every match. “If you see this data drop, there must be a reason behind it because motivation is through the roof,” he said.
