Gary Lineker ‘astonished’ by Thomas Tuchel decision: ‘It made zero sense’

Gary Lineker was left baffled by Thomas Tuchel’s approach late in England’s 2-1 defeat to Argentina, labelling it ‘unfathomable’ and ‘astonishing’.

Argentina are into the World Cup final after two late goals saw them come from behind to down the Three Lions in Atlanta.

Anthony Gordon gave England the lead on 55 minutes, prodding home a Morgan Rogers cross, but it was an unpleasant experience for English fans from there on in.

Argentina rallied and England went into their shell, with Tuchel making very defensive substitutions as he brought on Ezri Konsa for Gordon on 72 minutes, then sent on Nico O’Reilly and Dan Burn for Declan Rice and Reece James 10 minutes later.

With five at the back, England invited pressure and Argentina were happy to accept that invitation, with Enzo Fernandez equalising on 85 minutes with an effort from 20 yards as he inexplicably was in a huge amount of space.

In injury time Lautaro Martinez headed in the winner from a Lionel Messi cross and England’s misery was complete.

Lineker could not understand why Tuchel backed off so much with 20-plus minutes to play, with no outlet in attack and felt it went entirely against what he promised to do earlier in the tournament.

‘He said after the Croatia game that if we lose we’ll lose our way, by playing aggressive, attacking football. He went totally against that, didn’t he?’ Lineker questioned on The Rest Is Football.

‘You’ve got to believe in yourself. As soon as we went a goal up, they sat deep and the substitutes that he made made that even deeper.

‘He took Gordon off and obviously Konsa on, he turns to a five at the back and he brings Dan Burn on. So we’re going to play a really low block against a team that are very good at playing against a low block because they’ve got Messi.

‘What they don’t offer a threat in is if you play a high line and play up because they’ve got no threat behind. It made zero sense to me. I think tactically it was astonishing, to be perfectly honest.’

The former England striker added: ‘A lot of frustration. I found it absolutely unfathomable that you’ve got as a tactic, you sit everyone deep, playing against the greatest player that’s ever played football – and I think he’s just cementing that game after game after game.

‘He moves to the right, you play in a back five and you still don’t get tight to him. Just put someone on him! He had so much space, he just whipped ball after ball after ball into the box.

‘It was inexplicable to me that they didn’t try and get tight to the one player that can destroy you.’

Assessing the performance, Tuchel felt England were the better team until they went ahead but then the mindset changed.

He took responsibility for the substitutions, but sounded frustrated with how passive his players became in defending.

‘I think we were deservedly up 1-0, I think the momentum changed after that,’ Tuchel told ITV. ‘They had nothing to lose and we suddenly played like we had a lot to lose. They took more and more risks and turned the game around in the last 10 minutes.

‘We didn’t have enough possession, couldn’t escape the pressure anymore and tried everything but couldn’t get hold of the ball. Then it’s like you’re dying a slow death, it started straight away after the goal.

‘I thought we were the better team until we scored, but the mindset shifted, they took a lot of risk and played with a lot of quality.

‘I take the responsibility for the substitutions. It’s easy to be a coach after the game and tell the story from the result. No one can prove what would have happened with other substitutions.

‘I thought we needed a back five to close the gaps for all the crossing. They played with two wide wingers and two strikers so they had four players in the last line, so it made sense to me to have five players in the last line. but we didn’t stop the second line from coming through the gaps. We were not physical enough in these moments.

‘Anyway, it’s not a matter of structure, you can play in any structure, but we got too passive and got punished for that.’