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A sad farewell
England head coach Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that his team’s defeat to Argentina in the semi-finals of the World Cup represents a “scar” that is becoming more painful day by day.
Tuchel faced 48 hours of harsh criticism Wednesday night’s 2-1 defeat was down to his tactical decisions.
England now prepare for Saturday’s third-place game against France, a game Tuchel said “nobody wants” to play, with the frustrated manager revealing: During his press conference in Miami on Friday nightabout how much pain he felt as a result of what happened on Wednesday evening.
“We have to live with this issue. This is our pain, my own pain and the players’ pain. We feel the greatest pain of all, and this is the scar we carry now. It is a very painful defeat and we have to live with this defeat first.
England led 1-0 in Atlanta with just five minutes to go before conceding two late goals to prevent them from qualifying, allowing Argentina to qualify for Sunday’s World Cup finals instead. Since then, Tuchel has been criticized for England’s second-half collapse, defensive substitutions and switching to a five-back formation.
“After a bit of a shock at first, it became more painful day by day. This will be a scar for us, and unfortunately not the first and probably not the last.”
When asked if this was the most painful moment of his football career, Tuchel did not give a definitive answer, as he said:
Tuchel is currently facing a wide public backlash in his home country from fans who are disappointed that this tournament has ended in the same way as so many others, and immediately after the game Tuchel appeared to attribute the second half to elements of the England players’ “DNA”, given their struggle to keep the ball under pressure.
Tuchel also hit back at Donald Trump’s criticism of his tactics after the US president said at a press conference on Friday that it was a “mistake” to use Kane as a “defensive” player. Tuchel reacted with displeasure when he was asked about the comments for the first time.
Asked again on Wednesday about Kane’s drop in depth, Tuchel explained that it was a result of the team’s position as a whole and not based on specific instructions from Kane.
Tuchel explained that he would not take part in the blame-swapping “game” but said that the responsibility ultimately falls on him as technical director, adding: no one is to blame.”
While Tuchel took responsibility, he also refused to admit any of his decisions were wrong, and was particularly blamed for replacing Anthony Gordon with Ezri Konsai during the second water break on Wednesday, but he said he did not regret any of those decisions.
“I don’t regret my decisions. I felt we had to do something different for the team. I made a decision based on my instinct, intuition, experience and confidence in my competitive abilities. I made the decision to help the team and get a result, and no one knows the outcome of any other substitutions or any other changes.”
“This is what you do if you defend as one alliance. You defend as an alliance, and if we retreat into deep defense control, everyone defends.”
England now have to play France tomorrow in the third-place game and Tuchel is likely to make changes before everyone flies home. “No one wants to be in this meeting tomorrow,” he admitted. “All four of these semi-finalists wanted to be in New York, but it’s an official World Cup game and it’s an opportunity for England to achieve their best result in 60 years.”
