Thomas Tuchel explains controversial subs after England knocked out of World Cup by Argentina

Thomas Tuchel sought to defend his raft of negative substitutions after Argentina came from behind to knock England out of the World Cup.

The Three Lions went toe-to-toe with Argentina in what was a cagey semi-final first half before Anthony Gordon broke the deadlock after the break when he tapped home Morgan Rogers’ cross at the far post.

But despite there being 35 minutes of normal time still left on the clock, England rapidly went into their shell and sought to dig for a narrow win to progress to Sunday’s final.

Argentina only grew in confidence after the second half hydration break, making a slew of attacking changes as Tuchel instead opted to bring Gordon off for Ezri Konsa and move to a back-five.

Ten minutes later, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly were brought on to try and get the Three Lions over the line, but Argentina’s pressure eventually told.

Enzo Fernandez levelled the game with a superb long-range strike before Lautaro Martinez headed home in added time to seal a dramatic 2-1 victory for the defending champions.

England had just 12 per cent possession between Gordon’s goal and Martinez’s dramatic winner, with Wayne Rooney suggesting that Tuchel’s decisions ‘cost England the game’.

Previous England manager Gareth Southgate faced similar criticism after defeats to Croatia in the 2018 World Cup and Italy in the final of Euro 2020, and, like his predecessor, Tuchel insisted he had no regrets about his substitutions during the game.

‘We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open,’ Tuchel told BBC Sport post-match. ‘They won every header, they kept crossing and crossing. So we went to a back five to close the gaps inside and be stronger in the air.

‘Straight after our goal with no substitution, we just conceded way too many crosses and chances. We tried to help, but of course the responsibility is on the coach; if it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to say it was wrong.’

Asked if England should have instead pushed for a second goal, he responded: ‘Yeah, but it doesn’t help if you don’t have the ball. Of course we wanted to go for the second goal, but I didn’t have the feeling that an offensive substitution would help. 

‘We stayed in our 4-4-2, but became more and more passive. We couldn’t win any balls, couldn’t keep the ball. So I think it was not a structural problem. We changed nothing after a goal, but the match changed completely.’

He continued: ‘You can discuss this with a million coaches. I have to make a decision on the pitch. That’s how I analysed the match and I took the responsibility.

‘The team gave everything and we were very, very close. I think we deserved to be up 1-0. We played one of our better matches, maybe the best match in the circumstances. The team was top, but we couldn’t bring it over the line.’

Not everyone was willing to be so diplomatic about the outcome, though, with former England striker Chris Sutton brandishing Tuchel’s decisions as a ‘coaching catastrophe’.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: ‘That was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative. Defending deep and another defender on, it’s quite a simple game football; you have to get up the pitch.

‘You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina had. It’s all on the coach where I’m concerned. He made the changes. He was negative, so the question which I’m going to ask is how can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this team forward?

‘I don’t care what anyone says, England have had a generous run in this competition and they have not played well in one 90 minutes.

‘A World Cup semi-final, there’s a big opportunity to get over the line against an average Argentina side and they didn’t look average in the last 30 minutes, far from it, but I think England helped them with that. I think that was a coaching disaster.’

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