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ATLANTA — Harry Kane would not directly indict his manager, but the England star’s words were damning all the same.
“It’s a similar story to what’s happened in previous tournaments,” Kane said, heartbroken, after his team was on the wrong end of an Argentine remontada for the ages, 2-1 with both goals after the 85th minute to sink England in the World Cup semifinals.
In other words, it is the story that England fired Gareth Southgate for writing too many times, and which it hired Thomas Tuchel to avoid.
The Three Lions led Croatia 1-0 in the 2018 World Cup semifinal before sitting back and losing in extra time. They led the 2021 European final 1-0 over Italy and sat back before losing on penalties. They were conservative against Spain in the 2024 European final, too, though without ever leading.
Why, why, why, then, up 1-0 against an Argentina team that has come back again and again in this World Cup, did Tuchel make three straight defensive substitutions and invite pressure?
No one can deny that England needed Dan Burn on the field given how dangerous Argentina’s crosses looked, with Burn’s height such a weapon. But bringing on Ezri Konsa for goal scorer Anthony Gordon, bringing on Nico O’Reilly for Declan Rice and dropping into a deep block with a back five are decisions that should and will haunt Tuchel.
You can’t guarantee that England would have won the game had Tuchel done something different. He was right to point out that something had to change, that England was losing duels and leaving gaps.
Still, was this not the moment for Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze or even Kobbie Mainoo — whose lack of playing time all tournament was simply bizarre? Sitting in a low block against this Argentina team, for that long, was always going to yield the same result as making no changes at all. Anyone could have seen that.
“I think when we were in a 4-4-2 defending, we were conceding a lot of chances, so something had to change, and we’ve been pretty solid when we’ve went to a back five in the previous few games,” Burn said. “I think the manager may want to have done something in hindsight, but also from the players, we’ve got a responsibility to get through. Being 10, 15 minutes away from the World Cup final, we really, probably should’ve seen that one [out].”
Except this game was nothing like the Round of 16 against Mexico, when England was down to 10 men against a far less skilled side. It was nothing like the quarterfinal against Norway, when Erling Haaland was bottled up all match and the humidity of Miami made it far more feasible to sit back.
This was indoors, against an energized Argentina side that England had rightfully earned a 1-0 lead over. Aside from a brief Morgan Rogers breakaway, England may not have had a single touch in its attacking third between the hydration break and going down 2-1.
From the moment Konsa came into the game — and Lionel Scaloni, simultaneously, brought on Nicolás Otamendi, Rodrigo De Paul and Gonzalo Montiel — the writing was on the wall. England was on a knife’s edge against an opponent that simply cannot be kept at bay for 20 minutes plus stoppage time.
It was sheer naivete from the manager to believe otherwise.
“I believe that’s just the nature of the game. As soon as you lose you get criticized,” Tuchel said, denying any regret over the decision. “That’s just what it is. You get criticized after. … It makes no sense to engage in that and lose my head.”
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That was, at least, a slightly more defensible answer than he gave in a TV interview right after the game.
“I think it was not a structural problem,” he said to the BBC. “In the moment, there are no regrets. … We deserved to be up 1-0, we played one of our better matches, maybe our best match in the circumstances.”
Cut the answer a bit of slack for it being so soon after the game, in what was surely a raw moment. When Tuchel wakes up Thursday and has to start preparing to face France in a meaningless third-place game, it’s a safe bet he’ll feel some regrets.
If not, then you’d have to wonder why he’d still be qualified to manage England.
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