This was the moment we had all been waiting for – when this elite manager the FA had coveted for so long would come to the fore.
Knockout football is Thomas Tuchel’s wheelhouse. It’s his thing. It’s when he comes alive. He often says it himself.
Having masterminded arguably England’s greatest World Cup night since 1966 in the Azteca before silencing Erling Haaland, we all believed that hype. Football was coming home, thanks to a German.
Tuchel will instead look back at the heartbreaking Argentina loss as a potentially career-defining moment. It was the antithesis of top-level coaching. It wasn’t even Sunday League.
Four particular decisions ultimately cost England their best chance of ending 60 years of hurt.
Negativity beyond comprehension
That’s the thing with modern media: it is very easy to unearth old interviews that can make even the best in the business look very foolish indeed.
Everyone could see Martinez’s winner coming – except Tuchel (Photo: AP)“They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament than having the excitement and hunger to win it,” is how Tuchel described England’s performance at Euro 2024. It is now a phrase that could be repeated for years to come to summarise his own tenure.
One stat makes for damning reading. Between Anthony Gordon’s opener in the 55th minute and Lautaro Martínez’s winner in the 92nd, England had 12 per cent possession. Twelve. Never mind the Falklands – we have not seen a retreat of this scale since Dunkirk.
Sitting on a 1-0 lead for that long was simply suicidal. Allowing space in front of you for Lionel Messi to cause devastation is beyond even that. At the ripe old age of 39, Messi completed more dribbles against England than in any other World Cup match. Ever. That is on the manager.
Five at the back way too early
Dan Burn put in a Herculean effort at the Azteca to see England home. With 10 men, against inferior opposition, England’s five-man backline courageously held on for a famous victory.
Against Norway, that lionhearted bravery worked wonders: another five-at-the-back defensive masterclass. You cannot do it for nearly half an hour against Messi and the world champions, however, and expect to come out unscathed.
Bringing Ezra Konsa on for a forward in the 72nd minute was only ever going to go one way. Enzo Fernandez had several sighters at goal before making his thunderbolt of an equaliser count. All because five English players were camped inside their own box, unable to break out, on the behest of someone who should know better.
This was supposed to be Tuchel’s field of expertise (Photo: Getty)What is perhaps most frustrating was England were on top before their opener and could easily have maintained that level of dominance after finding a breakthrough.
By replacing England’s best high presser, Gordon, with another defensive body deployed into an already congested place, that backline were essentially lambs to the slaughter against opposition of this calibre.
Everyone could see that. Apart from one man.
Reece James a risk not worth taking
Tuchel is not afraid to make some bold selections. He has made it his calling card, in fact, down the years.
Sometimes it feels like he does it for the sake of it. Nico O’Reilly did not deserve to lose his place in the starting XI to face Argentina. Nor did Reece James warrant his opportunity.
James is a wonderfully gifted player, something Tuchel is fully aware of. But he is not, and has not been for a long while, remotely fit or up to speed with the rigours of elite football.
James was just that yard behind in his decision-making. In the group stages you can get away with it, but against the very best, you get found out.
Djed Spence justified his starting berth on the opposite flank, but Tuchel was simply trying too hard to mix things up on the other. If it ain’t broke…
Free Kobbie Mainoo
My t-shirt is in the post. The Argentina situation was made for Kobbie Mainoo.
He could have offered the perfect outlet to relieve the unrelenting pressure from wave after wave of Argentine attack, without needing to boot the ball out of play or cede possession in an instant.
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World Cup: England vs Argentina player ratings as ‘rusty’ Rice and James score 5/10 Kevin Garside: England’s gamble backfires spectacularly as 60 years of pain goes onInstead, he finishes the tournament having not even kicked a ball. Only Mainoo and Trevoh Chalobah, a late call-up, suffered such a fate as an outfield player.
It is just downright bizarre. When Declan Rice’s pain threshold could take no more it was O’Reilly who came on in midfield, over a player who was the driving force behind Manchester United’s late season revival last term from the very same position.
That unearthly gravitational pull Mainoo has over the ball should have been showcased on the grandest of stages this summer. And it could have led to an altogether more pleasing result.
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