England ‘sh*t the bed’ and Thomas Tuchel is a ‘fraud’ and ‘coward’

Thomas Tuchel gets an absolute kicking from England fans after his cowardly tactics v Argentina. Pep anybody?

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Thomas Tuchel f***ed that

Whatever happens Tuchel has committed a crime against football this evening. Never have I seen a manager so mismanage a game and I’m a Spurs fan.
Oliver, London

…I’m far more annoyed than I was after any of Southgate’s exits. With Southgate’s England, there was always a sense of inferiority. Tuchel was selected to shred that, and provide the big time big game nous to take us to the next level. Well Argentina were absolutely there for the taking, quite clearly from the first whistle, and as soon as we scored we absolutely shrank. Negative subs to invite pressure with half an hour of the game left, letting a completely washed side come back into it and turn the game around without a fight.

Tuchel has failed, and that in itself is not a problem, but he has failed in an unforgivable, naive way. He must go.
Ben, AFC
(I’ve watched plenty of backs to the wall 1-0 wins this year!)

…If you switch to a back 6 with the level of mediocrity offered by Dan Burn and Ezri Konsa, you deserve everything you get. A pathetic display of cowardice. They’re not even that good. We’ve thrown that away.
Lewis, Busby Way

…This loss is on one man. If Tuchel had an ounce of dignity he would have resigned on the spot. Hired to be better in big games than Southgate and when the pressure was on, he immediately become Southgate reincarnate and threw the game away. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a goal coming more obviously.

When we went far too deep after the goal I was waiting for the hydration break so Tuchel could address it, and instead he puts a 5th defender on and invites even more trouble.

A total fraud and coward. Just go away.
Phil, London

PS. Never seen more consistently bad delivery from wide from any team either. If we had a full back or winger who can kick the ball in the air we might still have made it.

READ: Thomas Tuchel f***s it as Argentina smash England’s bus to end World Cup dream

…I’m struggling to see how Thomas Tuchel’s big tournament game plan is any different to Gareth Southgate’s. Score a goal, then try to hang on for half an hour. I had this thought the day after the Mexico game but kept it to myself because everybody seemed so terribly happy and we’d all been up until 4am the night before. Didn’t seem the moment. But perhaps now someone could explain to me what precisely Tuchel has added to our national game?
Matt Pitt

…Final whistle just gone and the loss can be totally laid at Tuchel’s cowardly feet, utterly pathetic substitutions played right into their hands 6 bloody defenders FFS. Get rid of the clueless German.
Paul Murphy, Manchester

…Italy again, Croatia again, take your pick again. Why do we do that every time we take the lead in a big game. Those boys deserved more, 4 centre backs, 2 full backs, no out ball and no pressure. We were pretty much dominating the game, all they could do was kick us and as soon as we scored we just sat off. Going to 5 at the back sent the message to sit in, it was so obviously not going to work, in fact it so obviously not working – they had chance after chance and deserved to win in the end.

Tuchel had kind of won me over, but in the end he’s just done exactly what Southgate did. Great teams see a game out by keeping the ball. If we want to win, we need to learn to control games. We have the players, we have the players, it has to be the way we are set up. I thought he had a decent game but When Rogers ran through I was screaming for him to slow it down and recycle the ball. What did he do? Sprinted into a crowd of defenders, smacked it at their legs and we were on the back foot again.

We got to another semi-final but at some point we need to learn how to take the next step. Is Tuchel clever enough to change the way we play against elite teams? I think he showed his master plan and it did not work. Pep, come save us, you are our only hope!
Tom

(I actually think that was worse than adidasMUFC’s prediction.)

…Wow, a comprehensive lesson in how to sh*t the bed. How many times have we seen England take the lead then sit back only to get done? Like does anyone in the England setup EVER learn? I mean ever??? It’s actually criminal to keep making the same mistakes.

We had these beat with the game we were playing up to the goal, but somehow Tuchel and the coaching team thought, no let’s stop that and try and park the bus against the world champions no less.

This one is squarely on Tuchel and the coaching team. You had plenty of historical evidence to avoid making the same mistakes that cost us in previous tournaments but you went and did it anyway.

This is a hard one to take, shame on all of you.
Marc, Bolton

…Trying to defend a 1-0 lead when you don’t have a good defence is always likely to fail.

Can only assume Tommy Tuckle hasn’t watched any England knockout matches against decent sides from the last 20 years. Chucking more not-very-good defenders on just adds chaos not stability.

Oh well. Maybe 2030.
Jeremy Aves

…England score and their brains go straight out the window. Talk about a lack of mentality. How could they not keep of the ball, how did the manager think putting a million defenders on would work? Any decent team would control possession and take the sting out the game, and get fresh wingers on the counter. England after scoring were straight out the 80s. Embarrassing
Duck

It’s a slow death by football

I’ve seen the same England football game over and over and over since 1996 (the last time we played a semi final with any courage).

Can someone explain why all England players play like this and a world-class German manager starts to coach like a poor English one?

I can only think it’s the players. Every generation doesn’t believe it is good enough to win when the chance is there.
Rojapy

…The contrast between Spain and England when leading is telling.

Spain protect their lead by keeping the ball and suffocating France of chances.

England camp on the edge of the box and hope for the best.

The weakest part of the England team was the part relied on the most…. by design.

The entire first half Messi didn’t get a sniff due to the higher line and pressure on the ball, sit back and they gave him half the field to play in…2 assists.

Would Southgate have set the team up differently?

Tuchel has got the same result as Southgate, but did it while over complicating things and trying to prove himself the smartest person in the room,

How hard can it be to find a manager to play to the players’ strengths.

From the start there were people saying this was an unbalanced poorly selected squad and the more the tournament went on, the more that proved to be true. Hence Konsa being the one knocking in the crosses when chasing the game.

Anyone think of any England players more suited to that?

That was embarrassing for England after they scored.

Saddened as this is truly a period where England can be the best, but wasting a generation of talent on cowardly managers.
Liam

…We will never learn.

FFS.
Tom Whitlock

…Who’d have thought Wayne Rooney would be the most insightful pundit?
WTF Tommy, they’ve got Lionel Messi, just put Jordan Henderson on to chase him everywhere.
Howard (BBC w*^kf*×t over Argentina) Jones

…So here we are again, another deep run into a tournament and another ultimately disappointing exit for England. There seems to be a lot of criticism of Tuchel’s changes, and yes on the face of them they seem very negative, but let’s look at the match as it unfolded.

First half, England made the running. In the first quarter they had all the possession and all Argentina offered was the type of anti-football that would make Vinny Jones blush. They didn’t fashion too much but it looked quite comfortable. Argentina made a bit more of it in the second quarter (oh please don’t make that a thing, FIFA) but England still look the more likely to get a goal.

This is how it unfolded early in the second half. A few scary moments followed by an incisive break. Harry Kane made one of his lovely quarterback passes, Rogers timed it well took on his man and played a lovely ball for Gordon who put it away. This was England’s first mistake.

From that moment, the England players gave up on playing football like one of those clever similies your contributors often come up with.

I’m fairly sure thus wasn’t an instruction from Tuchel, as he was furiously gesticulating his team towards Emiliano Martinez, who for the last 40 minutes had set up a deck chair and was sipping mojitos while his compatriots camped outside the England penalty box.

Is this some sort of deep psychological problem with England? It seems to be a recurring theme, no matter who the manager is. Go a goal up, then fall apart from an offensive point of view.

Tuchel made substitutions and brought on defenders, but this was after thirty minutes of defending. He wasn’t looking to change the game, he was reacting to what had already happened, to where England’s mindset had collapsed into.

I think England should stick with Tuchel, but for the next tournament he needs to look at some way, any way of changing the mindset of the team so that scoring a single goal isn’t the end of the match when we’re playing top level opposition.

Yours irritably
Will Monk, Oxfordshire

…The worst thing is, this would have panned out the exact same under Southgate. 64 Years of hurt is the minimum diagnosis.
Rich Andrews

How did the England players fare?

Quick player review:
Pickford, ok
Stones, ok
Guehi, fine
Spence, very good in both directions
James, ok
Anderson, fine defensively and to not get rattled by the fouls, but not much else
Rice, ineffective, mostly because injured
Bellingham, fine – he tried throughout but even his shoulders are only so broad
Rogers, good and a great right-footed cross from the right for the goal; who’d have thought that would work
Gordon, good with lots of running and a good finish
Kane, poor in every aspect. Could have had a hattrick if he was ever in the box, but preferred to play crap passes from deep.

Tuchel, absolute rancid with a return to the “let’s go full defensive the moment we score” approach we all adored under Southgate. Why try to control the match in midfield when you can give the entire control to a dangerous opponent? Then make desperate attacking subs with 4 minutes to go. What a cretin. Wasn’t Tuchel supposed to be the guy that had the balls in the big moments? Almost like there’s a reason he’s been sacked quick from every big job.
Badwolf

Come in Kobbie

At least Kobie Mainoo might get a game now.
Jon, Cape Town (dirty Argies were the better team, we weren’t much of a team)

Still blaming Pickford

Anderson has some blame to take for losing his man but Pickford didn’t know where his goal was when that shot came in. All set to his left,

Hernandez’ strike wasn’t even into the corner to Pickfords right and he still couldn’t reach it. Nothing to do with T-Rex arms, just poor positioning.

As for the second goal, he didn’t know where he was himself, nevermind where the goal was. He was absolutely flapping.

Pickford made some tremendous saves and was given due credit but I said he’d cost England in this World Cup and he has.

He’s lucky that Tuchel sh*tting his pants will distract from it.
Eoin (I was hoping we’d have English fans on scene to boo the thirty minute half-time act)