Thomas Tuchel at England’s World Cup press conference (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
England’s manager, Thomas Tuchel, has accepted the blame for losing to Argentina 2-1 in the semi-finals of the World Cup earlier this week.
The Three Lions are now preparing to face France in the third place qualifier, while Didier Deschamps’ men were also beaten in the semi-finals, where Spain won 2-0.
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If England can win tonight it will be their best World Cup performance since their only win in 1966, but most of the response to Argentina’s defeat has been overwhelmingly negative.
Tuchel has been heavily criticized for his handling of the game, with Anthony Gordon’s goal giving England the lead until the world champions came back in the final five minutes.
Thomas Tuchel defends tactical decisions against Argentina
Tuchel reiterated that he has no regrets about the way he set up his team to defend that 1-0 lead, although to many observers it looked like the German coach made the decision to sit back and let Argentina have everything with about 20 minutes left to play.
The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager tried to explain himself, however, in his press conference quoted by BBC Sport.
“If you ask if I regret my decision, if this is the question, I don’t regret my decisions,” he said.
“I made a lot of decisions, I trusted my nature, my experience, my knowledge, I trusted my competition, I made a decision to help the team and get the result we didn’t get.
“So I take responsibility and these decisions. I would regret it if I didn’t help. I would regret it if we didn’t respond.”
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He added: “Why did we defend in the deep area, that’s what you do when you defend in the block, we weren’t effective enough.
“They had a lot of offensive turnovers, and a lot of attacking positions.
“That’s why we decided to play back five, have more width on the field, be close to the boys who cross.
“We just got complacent, and Argentina, by the way, found another gear and they found the perfect flow.
“We played in the semi-finals against the world champions. We were leading 1-0 with 85 minutes left. We played against the best player in the world, and we lost 2-1, which is sad.”
Can England close the gap with the top teams?
England came close again on the biggest stage, but fell short.
The appointment of Tuchel to replace Gareth Southgate was seen as a necessary step to help the national team finally get the trophy.
England also reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, while they were beaten in the finals of Euro 2020 and Euro 2024.
Once again, they couldn’t get over the line despite what would appear to be good competition this summer.
Tuchel suggested that there is still a gap between England and top teams such as Argentina and Spain, and that he will continue working to close that gap.
