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Head coach should ditch a physical approach that has rarely worked and embrace England’s gifted ball playersOnly England can claim the bronze medal at the World Cup by beating France in a 10-goal thriller and end up even more annoyed with the manager. Yet emotions are still running high after the collapse against Argentina last week and it is going to take more than winning a game low on jeopardy for the criticism of Thomas Tuchel to die down.Hiring Tuchel was centred around the promise that he would make the difference in the big games. When that fell down, all that was left was anger. It exposed the core emptiness of the appointment, of a rich federation covering up the flaws in its coaching development by trying to game the system by throwing money at an expensive outsider.What is the Football Association’s vision? The initial idea was Tuchel providing a short, sharp shock and his tactical acumen helping England to get over the line. Then came a change after a successful qualifying campaign against modest opposition. The FA moved the goalposts by handing Tuchel a contract extension, and suddenly winning the World Cup did not seem quite as pressing.Yet the idea of Tuchel as a project builder seemed far-fetched during the bitter recriminations after the defeat by Argentina. Criticised for his negative substitutions when England led, the German talked dismissively of English DNA, lamenting the lack of care in possession. Fair enough, you thought, because this has long been a weakness – only, hadn’t Tuchel caused some of the damage by leaving out most of the ball players from his squad? Would it have been different if Adam Wharton, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer had been around in Atlanta? Maybe not, but a lot of money has been spent on developing a different type of English player in recent decades.Perhaps Tuchel was thinking of an old English DNA. But maybe this is part of the issue with employing a foreign coach whose focus is on winning by any means possible. This is the third time England have been down this road. There is an idea of the manager from abroad as a sophisticate. But Sven-Göran Eriksson was not as tactically adroit as Glenn Hoddle. Eriksson played a traditional 4-4-2 whereas Hoddle was flexible with his formations.Tuchel, too, has struggled to build an identity. He seems taken with an outdated English style. Tuchel wanted to play like a Premier League team, with pace and physicality, but that has rarely worked for England. They tend to be outpassed in big knockout games, which is why there has been such focus in youth football in developing players more at ease with the dominant Spanish passing style.Spain have just won another World Cup, their method too much for Argentina in a dour final, and for those watching from afar a big takeaway will surely be that the last two teams standing were led by homegrown coaches.Luis de la Fuente and Lionel Scaloni have risen through the ranks and are part of a system. They have a feeling for their countries, a sense of the identity. Tuchel has been inserted in the hope he can cover up the FA’s failure to produce its own coaches. No male team led by a foreign manager has secured the World Cup and it should worry the FA when bringing in an outsider with a win-now mentality ends with the senior side using a very different style of play to younger age groups.There is a view within youth coaching circles that Tuchel has taken England backwards at this tournament. The under-21s have won the past two European Championships by being brave on the ball. They have beaten Spain in consecutive tournaments and the demand from Lee Carsley is that his players take risks in possession. Tuchel finished the semi-final by lobbing balls towards Dan Burn. He played a pragmatic style and his England ended up unable to throw caution to the wind. This World Cup underlines that turning to celebrated coaches from the club game is not a recipe for success.Brazil appointed Carlo Ancelotti but went out in the last 16. Roberto Martínez failed with Portugal after sticking with Cristiano Ronaldo. Mauricio Pochettino oversaw the USA side being humiliated by Belgium.Scaloni came through the national setup before winning the World Cup with Argentina in 2022. Similarly De la Fuente won the European Under-19 Championship with Spain in 2015 and the European Under-21 Championship in 2019. He has brought players through and, having earned a promotion, won the senior European title in 2024.Spain show smooth progression. Players who beat Argentina in the final played youth football for De la Fuente. This is not to say that England’s next step should be to appoint Carsley, who did not seem as if he had the temperament for the senior job when he filled in as caretaker between Gareth Southgate’s departure and Tuchel’s arrival. Even so, Carsley is closer to the Spanish style and has shown it is possible for England teams to be risk-takers.It is food for thought for the FA as it reviews England’s World Cup. As it stands, Tuchel will get another tournament. There are bridges to build but finishing third is not a sackable offence. In any case there is no other idea at the FA. Tuchel was not produced, he was bought. Hopefully he adapts during the Nations League. There should be a shift away from this physical style. But do not be surprised if the hired gun’s views on English DNA end up making him sound out of touch. It would not happen to Spain. De la Fuente knows their identity. He is part of it.

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German created ‘best England group for togetherness’Captain underlines importance of Nations League gamesHarry Kane has backed Thomas Tuchel to learn from England’s World Cup semi-final defeat against Argentina and believes they must use the forthcoming Nations League campaign to gain experience of playing against the top teams.Kane was an unused substitute as England sealed third place with an entertaining 6-4 victory against France on Saturday – their best finish at a World Cup on foreign soil. Tuchel, who signed a contract extension before the tournament, has been criticised heavily for his tactics against Argentina when he opted to switch to a back five to try to defend a 1-0 lead.Kane admitted England had fallen short against Lionel Scaloni’s side but described the environment Tuchel has created since succeeding Gareth Southgate in 2025 as “the best England group I’ve been a part of in terms of togetherness”.The captain said: “I know there are a lot of questions after the other night. We have to process it as players. I’m sure the manager will. It’s his first major tournament. He’ll learn a lot from the players, the situations, the pressures, the travel.“There are also a lot of things as players we can learn from the other night. For now it’s just trying to process everything. We had a lot of good things, a lot of tough situations we overcame. The group is incredible, the best England group I’ve been a part of in terms of togetherness. The boss was a big part of creating that as well.“Fans are going to be angry and we understand it. It’s a major tournament and that’s why you dream so big. When it doesn’t go your way you have to take the criticism. We’re all willing to do that, to dare to reach the biggest goal of all. We know over the next two years until we’re facing that situation again there is always going to be a question mark. It’s something we have to take and use as motivation.”England missed out on facing regular top-class opposition in the buildup to the World Cup after being relegated from the top Nations League group in 2022 under Southgate. They were promoted in 2024 and will face Spain, Croatia and Czechia, starting with a rematch of the Euro 2024 final against Luis de la Fuente’s side on 26 September at Wembley. After beating France – albeit in a largely meaningless game – Kane thinks England must take the competition seriously if they are to thrive in tournaments.“The last 30 minutes of Argentina is not the team we want to be,” he said. “We spent a lot of time over the last two years talking about that situation, to attack those moments. The bottom line is we lost anyway. It’s easy to go away and talk about it. We need to get better at actually being in those situations. We can train, play the qualifiers … I think the Nations League will be big for us, against Spain and Croatia, big teams.“Getting used to those big environments and finding our best form against those teams, like we did against France, albeit not in the most competitive match. We have to learn, improve. The coach will have improved from these learnings. I can talk as much as I want but ultimately it’s about showing it next time we’re in that situation.”Kane has been on the losing side in two World Cup semi-finals and two European Championship finals and he believes Tuchel is the man to help England to make the final step.“The enthusiasm he has, the emotion he brings, the tactical experience he has … it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it right every time. We want to get it right on the biggest occasions and he expects that from himself as well. He’s a fantastic coach. He not only gave the players belief but he gave the country belief that it was our year. That is why it hurts even more than other years because everyone believed we were going all the way.“Everyone has to process it. He has to process it himself. We’re still in that grieving stage, the emotional stage, and we’ll be in that for the next few weeks. It won’t be until the next camp where you think about what the future holds and what the next target is. We’ll have conversations as captain and manager and with other teammates and staff, to see where we can be better.”

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France beaten 6-4 on ‘very emotional’ day for squad‘This will help – but you never fully celebrate bronze’Thomas Tuchel has said England’s players can be proud of their efforts after a thrilling 6-4 victory over France sealed third place at the World Cup for the first time.England raced into a 4-0 lead at half-time thanks to goals from Declan Rice – the stand-in captain – Ezri Konsa and two from Bukayo Saka. But they were pegged back to within one goal after Didier Deschamps, taking charge of his final France game after 14 years, rang the changes at the break. Kylian Mbappé took his tally at this tournament to 10 goals and 22 at World Cups in total as he pushed to win a second successive Golden Boot and surpassed Lionel Messi’s all-time record. The Argentina forward will have a chance to overhaul him in Sunday’s final against Spain.Saka completed his hat-trick before Ousmane Dembélé made it 5-4 in injury-time and it was left to Jude Bellingham to have the final say after coming off the bench with his seventh goal of the tournament – the most by an England player at a World Cup.England were within five minutes plus stoppages of reaching their first World Cup final on foreign soil until Messi inspired the reigning champions’ late comeback in Atlanta on Wednesday. Tuchel, who was booed by some supporters when his name was read out before kick-off here, said in the buildup to this match that England had to show they were capable of cutting the gap to the leading nations. After hanging on for the win against the 2018 world champions, he has challenged his players to keep improving, starting with their Nations League meeting with Spain at Wembley on 26 September.“This game will help us for sure – even if you can never fully celebrate a bronze medal,” Tuchel said. “It’s the first [World Cup] medal for 60 years, first [at a] World Cup on foreign soil, and I hope the players can be proud of that at some point. We set ourselves the highest dream to chase, and we were very, very ambitious with our dream to make the final in the World Cup. So it’s very, very painful if you miss out, the pain will stay for a while.”Tuchel revealed that Jordan Henderson had delivered a speech before the game that had helped to put their achievement in perspective. “He put us in the right frame of mind, with everyone in one mindset. It was unbelievable because today was very emotional. We built something very special in the last seven weeks, and we’ll never negotiate on that. I still stand by my words, that we need to play better football, manage games better under pressure, take better decisions under pressure. We need to defend more economically.”Tuchel’s assistant, Anthony Barry, had given an emotional half-time interview when England were 4-0 up when he expressed surprise at the level of the performance given that they were “playing a game with broken hearts”. “The cynics will say it’s too late but we still play against a world-class opponent and I’m so proud of the boys,” he told the BBC. “There’s 45 minutes to go. The game’s not done. Anything can happen. But I’m proud of the team and I hope everyone is as well at home.”Saka was an unused substitute against Argentina and the Arsenal forward admitted he was disappointed not to have been involved. “Of course I would love to have played more but it’s too late to talk about that,” he said. “I try to do my talking on the pitch and it’s done now – let’s move on.“We fell short against Argentina. It hurts a lot. I’m sure it’s the same for the fans back home. We have to hold our heads high and move on. Obviously we’re both quite disappointed to not be in the final but it was about finishing strong and for us giving the country the best position in the World Cup they have finished for 60 years, so we’re happy with the final result.”Zinedine Zidane is poised to take over from Deschamps, who became only the third person to win the World Cup as a player and manager and said he was departing with no regrets after reaching the 2018 and 2022 finals.“I could have changed eight of them at half-time,” he joked about his team’s first-half display. “It is the end of a journey that has represented the most beautiful period of my life. I always put the French team first. You can be called by the best clubs in the world but there is nothing above this national team. We have faced the greatest moments and I’m hoping for the team to reach new levels when I’m gone.”

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England’s coach said ball possession is not in the team’s DNA – it’s an opinion that should disqualify him from the jobHow we talked. On late-night news shows, disembodied heads above a rolling yellow banner. On planes and trains, at bus stops and flower shops and kids’ birthday parties, trying desperately to connect the ennui of the now with the vividness of the later, trying on some level to anticipate the feelings, the blood surge, the heart rush. At the sinks in the office toilets, jerthinktheylldoit, theyactuallymighty’know, shake-shake, and your devastating analysis of the Rice-Anderson-Mainoo triple pivot gets lost in the noise of the hand-dryer.Two years of this. Countless millions sunk on tickets, hotels, Ubers, shirts, pizzas, flags, the hours spent on Google Maps trying to locate somewhere to eat after 11pm in Riga, the endless psychodrama over Jude Bellingham and whether he should have been left at home or not (turns out, not). How we bled and sweated over this, over the minor details of the journey, over whether Danny Welbeck had done enough to earn a place in the squad or not (turns out, not). All pointing towards the moment on Wednesday evening when England are 1-0 up in a World Cup semi-final against Argentina and your entire happiness rests on whether a bunch of millionaire footballers and a millionaire German coach can keep their shit together for 40 minutes, or not.Turns out, not. And out there, on the ragged shores of This England, there is a view already beginning to take shape. That while Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions may have cemented Argentina’s territorial dominance, England were basically under the pump long before that point, already dropping back and committing to a defensive rearguard. That this is in fact a wider malaise, perhaps even a kind of moral deficiency, a long and persistent pattern of failure in which – say – getting destroyed 4-1 by Germany in 2010 and losing to France in 2022 with 57% possession are basically the same offence, a common sickness, the same lozenge in different flavours.And you have to challenge these things at source, because if you don’t challenge them they become established fact, whether or not they’re actually true. Well, I’ve watched the tape back so you don’t have to. Specifically, the 13 minutes from Anthony Gordon’s goal hitting the net to the second drinks break. In those 13 minutes England have to weather quite a bit of Argentina pressure. There are corners, crosses, a header from Nicolás González that Jordan Pickford gets down well to save. But none of this is remotely out of the ordinary.Indeed pretty much as soon as Argentina kick off they gift England another opening, Lisandro Martínez letting the ball run under his foot, Morgan Rogers winning possession, and Harry Kane not quite able to control his pass. By 61 minutes England have pressed Argentina back into their own third. In the subsequent minutes Kane and Declan Rice will both have low-percentage shots from distance.The problem here is not tactics, not fatalism, not an endemic national culture of failure, but poor decision-making, perhaps reinforced by fatigue. Lionel Messi is not yet running the game, and none of what follows is inexorable or inevitable, let alone generational. The drinks break arrives and England can rest for a few minutes, perhaps even make a sub or two to freshen things up. It is at this point that Tuchel decides to blow up England’s chances of winning the World Cup.As a counterfactual, what would have a more optimistic and effective response looked like at this point? Kane was clearly out on his feet, and keeping him in play for the faint possibility of penalties in an hour was madness. So Ollie Watkins comes on to stretch the play and lead the press. This is no longer a game for Rogers and so you throw on Bukayo Saka, not just for his defensive skill but his ability to dribble his way out of pressure and feast on the spaces that will open up. Above all you trust in the process, the sense of purpose and ambition and unity that knows that World Cups are won, not survived.“If we lose, we lose in our way,” Tuchel told his players at half-time in the opening game against Croatia, a call to arms that generated some of the most thrilling football England have played at a major tournament in my lifetime. Where did that go, Thomas? Or: where did that Thomas go? Perhaps at some point on the road to the Azteca, or in the heat of Miami, Tuchel lost the simple faith that had brought England to this point.This is how you end up with six defenders on the pitch, with Saka and Watkins and Kobbie Mainoo and Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke all fresh and unused on the bench, with Cole Palmer and Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Adam Wharton and Morgan Gibbs-White at home. Between the second hydration break and the second Argentina goal, England had less than 8% possession, completed just five passes in 25 minutes, allowed a 39-year-old player from Major League Soccer to play exactly the sort of game he would have craved.Let us not relitigate every single one of these decisions in isolation; what is being argued here is a broader direction of travel. For an England fan this is perhaps the part that hurts the most: we believed in this team and these players right to the end. What if Tuchel never really believed in them at all?“Ball possession is not in our DNA like it is in the Spanish DNA or the Argentinian or Brazilian DNA,” Tuchel said after the game. If this was once undeniably true, it is now at best arguable and at worst a form of gaslighting that should disqualify Tuchel from the job on the spot. Rice, Saka, Mainoo, Elliot Anderson, Eze, Reece James, John Stones: based on what we know of them at club level, are these players who have trouble keeping the ball? Perhaps it is no wonder that in subsequent days reports have emerged from the England camp that the players themselves were unhappy with Tuchel’s safety-first approach: an approach that left them with no outlets, no options, no tools except the bluntest of all.These are players who want to play football, who want to express themselves, backed by thousands who emptied their life savings to travel, to pursue, to feel something. This is no longer a nation that punches pitifully below its weight at international level, that neglects the tactical and technical aspects of the game, that quivers at the thought of penalties. Is it unreasonable to demand a coach who sees what these players can do, rather than imagine what they can’t? There are those who argue soberly that changing the coach at this point is a triumph of emotion rather than reason, that there is nobody better out there, that there is a lucrative contract that needs to be honoured.But for a coach hired to win these hinge moments, detonating a World Cup semi-final feels like the ultimate red-flag behaviour. And beyond this the small-mindedness, the absence of ambition, the audacity required to neg the entire English game rather than admit to one’s own cowardice. Tuchel was hired to unleash the considerable potential of a supreme generation of English footballing talent. From what we’ve seen, it’s not immediately clear whether he can even see it.

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Head coach refuses to engage in ‘blame game’ after defeat by ArgentinaTrump joins critics of Tuchel’s tactics in World Cup semi-final eliminationThomas Tuchel has insisted he is not interested in engaging in the “blame game” over England’s World Cup elimination and vowed to close the gap on the leading nations.Even Donald Trump has joined criticism of Tuchel’s tactics in the semi-final defeat by Argentina, with the US president questioning why he made Harry Kane “a defensive player” as England attempted to hold on to a 1-0 lead. But before the third-place playoff against France in Miami on Saturday night that was described by Tuchel as “the match no one wants to play in”, England’s head coach defiantly stood by his decisions and said that he and his players must learn from their experiences.“I believe that three other nations [in the semi-finals] have almost expectations to win the title. This is not us,” said Tuchel. “France, Spain, Argentina expect almost they’re on that level that they expect to win. We are not there yet. There is still a gap to close. This is what we will do from tomorrow. We will not stop. We will not stop hunting. We will not stop challenging. We have things to improve in a football matter. And this is the context. So there is not a lot of room for drama. If drama is needed, if the blame game needs to be played, OK, we can do that. But I have the right to not engage.”Asked whether he had any regrets over his decisions after 48 hours of reflection, Tuchel added: “I felt that we had to do something different for the team, and I took a decision, trusting my instinct, my intuition, my experience, trusting my competitiveness, and I took the decision in order to help the team and get the result. But the decisions are made under stress. The decisions are made in game. I would regret it if we didn’t react. But I have no regrets over the decision itself.”Tuchel also dismissed Trump’s comments that were made earlier during a press conference with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino. “They took the lead, and they took their best player and put him on defence,” said Trump. “We have got to be a little offensive, right? But no I’m not going to call it. What do I know about coaching? It was unusual.”Tuchel at first questioned whether “you use Donald Trump as your witness?” when asked about his comments. But he was adamant that Kane had merely been following instructions.“We defended in a deep block. That’s what you do if you defend in a block. You defend in a block,” he said. “We were not active enough. We could not escape the deep block. That is what teams build: togetherness and mentality is translated to in football terms. We defend as a 10 and as an 11. Together as a team, the team spirit, the togetherness, the mentality that this team built in the last six and a half weeks, is not to be questioned.”England trained at their Kansas City base for the last time on Friday but their arrival to Miami – the venue for their quarter-final victory over Norway – was delayed by thunderstorms in the area. Jude Bellingham and Jordan Henderson were among the players who were pictured sampling a barbecue on Thursday night. John Stones admitted that it had been hard to process the pain of defeat.“We are still going through a lot of suffering and pain,” he said. “The nature of this game is we as players take things very personally. That’s why we are where we are and why we’re always striving for more. I think everyone felt that [we could win it]. That’s why to go out in a semi-final hurts even more because we believed so much and didn’t get to where we believe we should be.”

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German will be pilloried for his semi-final decisions but that is to ignore the fact English football culture is not set up to win major tournaments“I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly.”As England’s World Cup hopes recede into another spell of heartache, let down in Atlanta by the latest handsome, cadaverous Mr Right, a little sadder, not much wiser, sunburnt, broke, eating Jägerbomb ice cream out of the tub with a spoon, this is a good moment to seek some classic New York romcom solace. Meg Ryan was right. Don’t be sad that it’s over. Be incredibly angry and frustrated on the radio that it happened at all.The World Cup will now reassemble in New York for its ceremonial tying of the final knot, that interminable walk down the aisle finally complete. As for England, it will be some time before anyone feels like getting back out there. There must be time for shock, process, recriminations. There must be time for a spell of it’s not us: it’s you, Thomas.Drinking in the extreme emotional reaction to England’s tournament exit, which was, for all its frustrations, still pretty much the same as all the other exits, it is tempting to pause before blaming the manager so explicitly. Here we go then. Another tale of much-questioned selections and a team that shrank on the big stage. Did you ever hear the one about the man who likes to complain that every one of his ex wives have had the same failing, they just don’t get him, and that goes for all 17 of them?What is it with all these Mr Wrongs? Remember the last one? Open letters about the meaning of marmalade. Bad selections and the team shrank on the big stage. Thank God we got rid of him, eh? Remember the one before that? Ray Lewington must see Paris. Bad selections and the team shrank on the big stage. Before that? Angry, mute, foreign. Bad selections and the team shrank on the big stage. Before that? Umbrella stuff. Bad selections, team shrank on the big stage. Before that? Chilly nordic sex maniac. Bad selections. Team shrank. Big stage. What a run. How unlucky can you get?But two things can also be true. The team felt oddly skewed and stodgy all tournament. Tuchel is paid very well to manage these occasions. And he did undeniably balls this up, with a major opportunity on hand to do the opposite.By the time Tuchel appeared post-match deep in the refrigerated sub-tiers of the Atlanta Stadium he seemed already to have become thinner and more gaunt, to have become basically a skull, a depressed skull with good taste in tailored menswear, up there talking fluently about the need to retain tactical perspective, openly wrestling with how to respond to what was heading his way, because, as he said – and this is true – when you lose every choice you made is wrong, and every other choice you didn’t is right.On the other hand it is now heads on pikes time. Everyone loves a bottling. And that is what we got here. What is the charge list? Mainly it’s the period 72-92 minutes in Atlanta, when suddenly England’s entire world became defence, fear, terror-ball, flinching for the blow. It was on 72 minutes that Tuchel reacted to his team having already lost all shape, will or threat of an attacking outlet by going to a deep back five.With 82 minutes gone England had six defenders on the pitch. The talk of energy, balls, guts, fearlessnesses had all evaporated, replaced by what was basically an attempt to burgle it. This was a misjudgment. It worked against Norway and Mexico, narrowly. But neither of those teams feature a walking speed all-time great who will kill you just for the fun of it if you don’t press him, if you offer up a comfortable pocket of air.This was dying with your boots barely on. It was living on your knees. It was what always happens. And this was supposed to be not that.So Tuchel will also now be re-pilloried for his squad selection, which is easy and also allows for an unprovable counterfactual history. In reality the squad was largely a success. England beat the hosts and reached the semis. The fringe players looked happy and energised. The things Tuchel did poorly against Argentina he had previously done well. People sometimes screw up. Your tactics dad will not always fix you. Tuchel was heading for an eight here overall, downgraded to a seven post Atlanta, and with a four on that game alone.At which point it is necessary to look at that wider picture, to look away from the idea of the magic man, the saviour. “Maybe a happy ending doesn’t include a guy. Maybe it’s you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over”. Not my words. The words, famously, of the romcom He’s Just Not That into You, and an excellent reminder that so often the deeper answer lies closer to home. Tuchel failed to beat Argentina in the moment. More widely he failed to beat England, or rather the concept, the abstract of England, which is always there in every game, your most feared opponent, in all its ornate and tortured exceptionalism, its heavy, heavy air.The real event here was not minutes 72-92. It was the thing Tuchel failed to respond to in that span, the key event in Atlanta, the complete unravelling of England’s players on the pitch after taking the lead 17 minutes earlier. At that moment England cowered, dropped deep, held on, saw the whole of the moon, felt the line in sight, victory against Argentina, and shrank from it.Tuchel’s failure was not in failing to foresee this. His rant (translation: controlled explanation of failings) after the Norway game looks prescient now. He saw this coming. He could do nothing to prevent it. And so England lost as they always do at this stage. Fail again. Fail exactly the same way.Suddenly England were being bullied, pushed back, feeling the full force of the Messi personality, out there hacking corners away with 20 minutes still to play. Tuchel didn’t want this. He urged them forward from the touchline. Harry Kane disappeared. His moment wasn’t exactly bad here. It just didn’t exist. Tuchel did try to fix things, went into overdrive in the hydration break, iPad out, down on the turf waving his arms in a show of manic energy.The knockout games are often decided by those slack, disorderly periods late in the day, when the ability to control the tempo and the ball, the skillset of the elite self-governing midfielders becomes the greatest team asset. And England’s midfield still lacks the extreme possession-based craft that wins tight knockout games. They lost like this to Croatia in 2018, where Luka Modric just took the game away. The lost like this to Italy in 2021, when the ball just steadily disappeared into that calm blue cloud. International football rewards a cultural connectivity, a degree of intelligence and game awareness, off-the-cuff creativity. And the fact is England just don’t make the really high-end controlling midfielder whose game is entirely craft and intelligence.And this is the real point here. Tuchel may have failed to reverse engineer a fix, to add a gloss from the top on a culture of haphazard development. But maybe this is a stupid idea in the first place. England have tried to game the system, to find a cheat code, to buy a very expensive high-end club manager, outsourced expertise.The Football Association’s plan never really made much sense. Eighteen months to fix it all, and with a late start too because this saves a bit of money. This, right here, is the culture of short cuts, bodge jobs, confusion, lack of game intelligence, just expressed at an executive tier.You can’t make a culture. There is no real English way of playing. There is a Premier League way, kind of. But what is that? The league is an international talent clearing house, rootless, acquisitive, cannibalistic, where very few of the key players in the best teams are home products.What would England winning the World Cup even mean? What message would it express? This is how you win a World Cup? Neglect your coaching culture. Produce no managers. Create academy players who fulfil a brief but don’t really have a coherent style, in the way Thierry Henry has described the Spanish development system so eloquently. Then stick a highly paid internationalist club manager on top and hope it all makes sense when the pips squeak and a genius level player asks what are you actually made of?Tuchel’s mistakes in defeat can be picked out, re-run, dissected. But he is also part of a much wider process, choices made, turns taken over many decades. England are much better and more coherent as a team. So much effort has gone into bridging that gap. It has narrowed. But this is still England, still out there being true to itself, still crashing in the same car.

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The England head coach took a risk by selecting injury-prone players and ignoring creative options such as Foden, Palmer and Gibbs-WhiteWhen Thomas Tuchel became England’s head coach he spoke repeatedly about wanting his side to adopt a Premier League style. He wanted intensity, pace, full-throttle football. Tuchel offered clarity, his analysis was precise and his squad for the World Cup was built around the idea of overwhelming opponents with physicality and relentless running.There were roles for specialists and places for individuals who could be trusted to bring the vibes. There were like-for-like alternatives in various positions and Tuchel was granted a lot of leeway. He was bold with his choices and could respond to questions about omitting the creativity of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Adam Wharton, Morgan Gibbs-White and Trent Alexander-Arnold by arguing that he had a vision and was going to stick to it.There were glimpses of England’s high-speed approach when they beat Croatia in their opening game but the illusion was shattered during the surrender from 1-0 up in the semi-final against Argentina. The self-sabotage was astonishing, as Tuchel lost his nerve and handed the game to Lionel Messi. Argentina were there for the taking but Tuchel retreated.Some England players were said to have been puzzled by Tuchel overseeing a tactical capitulation, unable to understand why he decided to play so defensively. There was widespread surprise that he did not use the pace of Noni Madueke, Bukayo Saka, or Marcus Rashford to hit Argentina on the break.Tuchel came in for criticism from a host of former players. The former Germany forward Thomas Müller was scathing about how Argentina were invited to attack England. The former England striker Wayne Rooney, a pundit for the BBC, said Tuchel’s tactics were asking for trouble.How you lose matters. England went out to Argentina in the second round in 1998 but it was an epic performance with 10 men. Atlanta was nothing like that and the Football Association remains in thrall to Tuchel and is desperate not to make a change but it needs to recognise what happened. After all, Mark Bullingham, the FA’s chief executive, said that England’s best performance under Sir Gareth Southgate was their run to the quarter-finals at the 2022 World Cup, even though it was their earliest tournament exit under Tuchel’s predecessor.The postmortem goes deeper than the end result. How was the mood in the camp? Positive enough. England were together, as they proved against Mexico in the Azteca, but how did they play? There was never any flow or identity – and when it comes to analysing why it is worth going back to how Tuchel configured his squad and then used it.On one level it is pointless moaning about Palmer and Foden, partly because their domestic struggles hurt their selection chances, but also because there is nothing to suggest Tuchel would have put them on when England were leading against Argentina. Tuchel had fast attackers on the bench and chose not to use them. He veered away from his plan and he showed no faith in Saka’s fitness. The situation seemed made for the winger to come on and run at the 32-year-old Nicolás Tagliafico on the right. Tuchel resisted. Saka has been struggling with an achilles injury and, although he has shown flashes of class in previous games, Tuchel did not trust him when it came to the crunch.Ultimately, the manager fell into the familiar trap of relying on unfit or injury-prone players. England needed Saka but he remained on the bench. Tuchel restricted his options. The aim was to have wingers going down the outside and creating overloads. Tuchel did not want Palmer and Foden cutting in and clogging up the middle. Yet Madueke, Saka’s direct replacement, was such a disappointment. He fell out of favour after the quarter-final against Norway and it is fair to wonder whether Tuchel missed a trick by not selecting Jarrod Bowen or even Rio Ngumoha given Saka’s fitness issues and Madueke’s faltering confidence. It is damning that Tuchel ended up discarding some of his wide options having placed so much store in them. Rashford, like Madueke, was cast aside after fitful early displays.Gibbs-White, a direct runner who did not make the squad, may feel he could have made an impact given that he can also play wide and scored 18 goals last season. If only this was just about Saka, though. The problem is that several England players were injury concerns. The Newcastle defender Tino Livramento flew home injured. John Stones was rusty in central defence and needed time to get going. Reece James, another who played in the cursed right-back position, predictably had hamstring trouble and went down with cramp shortly before Argentina’s equaliser.These were foreseeable problems. Equally, it is fair to say that there were not many other defensive options. Luke Shaw and Lewis Hall are good left-backs but have fragile injury records. Harry Maguire’s bitter reaction to not being selected tells you why Tuchel overlooked him.Still, Tuchel ended up with a squad containing six centre-backs but only one left-footed left-back (Nico O’Reilly) and four central midfielders. He tied his own hands, not least when it came to reacting to Declan Rice’s neural pain in a hamstring and his lower back.Rice is crucial to how England play. Their structure disappears without him in midfield. Yet Tuchel knew his vice-captain was struggling to complete games. There had to be a viable alternative but the cover for Rice and Elliot Anderson was Jordan Henderson and Kobbie Mainoo.Those were mind-bending choices. Henderson is 36 and had made one brief substitute appearance in five games before fracturing a wrist during the celebrations against Mexico. Was he really there in a playing role? The evidence suggests otherwise. In fact Tuchel’s favoured change when Rice was struggling was to put James in midfield. Mainoo, who treats the ball like a friend, has not played. Wharton, another snappy passer, watched from home. Alex Scott, the energetic Bournemouth midfielder, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, who started in midfield for Arsenal in the Champions League final, were also overlooked.Tuchel never seemed to understand why he took Mainoo. He can complain about England lacking control when they led against Argentina but he left out players who are comfortable on the ball. It was a conscious choice from Tuchel and what makes it worse is that he did not even stick to his plan.Why did he not make better use of his squad? Tuchel spoke about having 14 or 15 starters. Others were there for specific situations. Ivan Toney was there as battering ram for emergency situations. Not giving the striker a sniff until England were on the verge of going out at least felt logical. However, not using Ollie Watkins was a weird choice. Harry Kane had a poor game against Argentina and should have been substituted. Watkins could have worked the channels and stretched them. The striker was given one brief substitute appearance against Panama, though, and is entitled to feel that Tuchel was too wedded to Kane.Plenty of England managers have blundered by indulging the star players. Tuchel was meant to be different. Now he looks like many who came before him. The scrutiny will be intense. Some players will wonder about the manager’s negativity. Others will wonder why they were not given a chance. The fans are ready to turn. There was trust in Tuchel. The FA will cling to it but the damage to his aura is vast. He made mistakes and the manner of the defeat makes it hard to look past them.

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Manager under fire for manner of 2-1 defeat by Argentina‘There is enough to improve and I am happy to do that’Thomas Tuchel says he is “100%” committed to leading England at Euro 2028 and finding the “extra level” for glory that eluded his team at the World Cup.The manager is under fire for the manner of Wednesday’s 2-1 semi-final defeat in Atlanta. His switch to a back five for the final quarter at 1-0 up did not work, Argentina scoring two late goals to advance into Sunday’s final against Spain.Tuchel maintains the system was not the problem, rather it was the passivity of the players after Anthony Gordon opened the scoring in the 55th minute. He lamented England’s inability to get on the ball and control the game, suggesting it was not in their DNA to do so. The Football Association hired him to solve this issue, among others, and the pain of familiar failings continues to pound.But Tuchel, who signed a contract extension in February to carry him through the Euro 2028 campaign, remains determined and retains the FA’s backing. Asked whether he wanted to take the team forward in the next two years, he replied: “Yes, 100%. There is still enough to improve and I am more than happy to do that. I’ve loved every day of the World Cup.“I said after the quarter-final win against Norway that I see a disconnect from what I see in training on a football level and within the games. We can impose ourselves more on the ball. We can show what good football players we are. That is still in us as I see it in training and in every camp. And here also at the World Cup. I still feel there is an extra level that we need to conquer. We need to step up to the next level to get the big prize.”At the FA, there is a measure of satisfaction at how the team made it to the semi-finals, and realism, too. When the draw was made, it was considered to be tougher than at previous tournaments under Sir Gareth Southgate, starting with a group that contained Croatia and Ghana.The FA acknowledged the peril of a potential run from the last 16 to the final that took in Mexico in the altitude of Mexico City, Brazil, Argentina and Spain or France. In the event, it was Norway not Brazil in the quarter-final.The governing body was also acutely conscious of the situational and logistical challenges – especially the heat and travel. When England arrived in Atlanta for the Argentina game, it was after their 13th flight since the beginning of the tournament. All this after a gruelling Premier League season for most of the squad. There is the hope that a European Championship – which England will co-host – can be more straightforward.The FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, was quick to show his appreciation after the full-time whistle against Argentina. “It is heartbreaking to be so close,” he said. “The players and Thomas gave it everything and the squad, coaches and staff could not have worked harder during the tournament. I would like to thank them all.”Tuchel was damned by the optics of his retreat into the back five when he sacrificed the pacy outlet of Gordon for the extra centre-half in Ezri Konsa on 72 minutes. But he argued that the rot had set in before then – specifically after Gordon’s goal – when the team were in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation.One of the turning points came in the 64th minute when the Argentina manager, Lionel Scaloni, replaced the defensive midfielder Leandro Paredes with the left winger Nico González and moved to 4-2-4. Scaloni went all-out in the 81st minute as England still led, withdrawing the left-back, Nico Tagliafico, and introducing the striker Lautaro Martínez. It paid off, Martínez scoring the stoppage-time winner. England had only 12% of the possession between the Gordon and Martínez goals.“We got too passive within our structure,” Tuchel said. “I tried to help … for us to actually be more active in a back five, to be quicker out to their wingers. We encouraged everyone to step out, to be more active but we just struggled. We couldn’t find any duels any more, which was why we dropped deeper and deeper. It was never the plan but it happened. We couldn’t stop the runners from the second line, the midfielders through our gaps. And their deliveries were on the highest level.“We needed to get back on the ball otherwise you cannot break the pressure and you cannot get the momentum back. We just couldn’t cope with the momentum swing. Ball possession plays a crucial role. It’s maybe not in our DNA like it is in the Spanish DNA or the Argentinian or Brazilian DNA – to take the ball and control the game.“It’s also not a problem to defend deep. You can stay active. But we struggled. We struggled physically, as well. Through the whole tournament … playing in the heat, playing in the altitude [against Mexico] and with a man down [after Jarell Quansah’s red card]. It cost us a lot in the end. We gave everything but it was not enough.“My feeling is that no structure in the world could have helped us because we were too passive. We were not physical enough, we didn’t stop runs arriving in our box and the deliveries were then too good.”

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It was a statistically weird game for Argentina’s talisman against England, full of outliers. It didn’t matterThomas Tuchel will have prepared for every eventuality before England’s match with Argentina. He will have considered how his team could prosper in attack while remaining solid in defence. What to change if they scored first or if the opening goal went against them and, like so many managers before him, he will have put plenty of thought into how best to deal with Lionel Messi.For the first hour he was largely peripheral, with the data showing how England were limiting his involvement in dangerous areas. Messi’s only possession in the centre of the penalty area was snuffed out by an Elliot Anderson tackle shortly after Anthony Gordon had scored. The proportion of the distance he covered that was defined by Fifa as sprinting speed (at least 20km/h) was 4.3%, lower than against Switzerland (4.6%) or Egypt (5.4%) in the previous two rounds.The 39-year-old’s relative lack of shots will have heartened Tuchel. The only effort Messi had was from long range and blocked before it had reached the England box. In only one of his other 19 World Cup matches in which he played the full 90 minutes did he have so few shots in normal time, though he also played 120 with one effort (on target) against the Netherlands in 2014. Against Croatia four years later his only shot came from very close range. He has arguably never been so blunt from this perspective in this competition. So far, so good for England.Messi’s heat map also burned brightest where it usually does: in the right half-space in front of the opposition’s penalty area. It would be foolish to claim England had him where they wanted him, but at least Argentina’s captain was operating where they would have expected him to be. That can be planned for, which helps.A heat map for a whole match obscures subtle shifts that occur. Picture the flank between the edge of the penalty box and the touchline, running up to the halfway line. Messi’s only touch in this zone in the opening 45 minutes occurred close to the centre circle, when he passed forward to Giuliano Simeone, who was offside.But it was from this flank that the talisman took the game away from England. Messi attempted six open-play crosses in this region in the second half. It’s a ridiculously high number for a player who has averaged 2.3 crosses (including set plays) per 90 minutes across league football since 2015. In only two World Cup games has he attempted more, though interestingly both occurred in the preceding two rounds.One of Messi’s deliveries from wide led to the Nico González header which Jordan Pickford did well to save shortly before the second hydration break. Perhaps it was this moment that firmed up Tuchel’s plan to bring on Ezri Konsa immediately after, the head coach later supplementing him with Dan Burn after switching to a back five. The strategy worked against Mexico so why not here too?Because Messi is rather better at crossing than Roberto Alvarado and Jesús Gallardo. Those two Mexico players attempted 25 open-play crosses between them at the Azteca for the reward of once chance valued at 0.05xG. Messi, with his cross for Lautaro Martínez’s winner, generated 0.53xG, more than England mustered all night. It was only his second World Cup assist with his right foot and far harder to pull off than the cutback from the byline he provided to Julián Álvarez in the semi-finals in Qatar.It was a statistically weird game for Messi, full of outliers. It didn’t matter. Wherever the space happens to be, the greatest of all time will be there to torch your best-laid plans.

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Head coach has no regrets but admits he will be judgedBellingham appears to strike Argentina’s Barco on headThomas Tuchel shouldered the blame for England becoming far too passive after taking the lead as Argentina ended his team’s World Cup dream with a dramatic late comeback.England were within minutes of a first men’s World Cup final on foreign soil after going ahead through Anthony Gordon early in the second half. But the reigning champions equalised through a piledriver from Enzo Fernández before the substitute Lautaro Martínez scored the decisive goal in the second minute of injury time to send Argentina through to Sunday’s final against Spain in New York.England’s players slumped to the turf at the full-time whistle, with the captain, Harry Kane, leading them over to the travelling fans to thank them for their support and Jude Bellingham wiping away tears. There were contrasting emotions for Lionel Messi, who sank to his knees and pumped his fists in delight when Argentina’s second successive final was confirmed.Tuchel, who opted to withdraw Declan Rice and Reece James three minutes before Fernández’s equaliser as England switched to a back five, could not hide his disappointment and acknowledged he had had played a part in England’s downfall.“We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open,” said Tuchel. “Argentina played with more risk, played with more rhythm and played with the feeling maybe that they had nothing to lose any more, which freed them up and pulled us back. Because we obviously played suddenly with a feeling that we had a lot to lose. Of course the responsibility is on the coach and if it doesn’t go well it’s easy to say it was wrong.”Asked whether England’s tendency to throw away leads was a question of mentality, he said: “I don’t believe so much in an English thing and a curse or whatever. It’s repeating itself in different moments. It’s different coaches, different players, different situations.“What cost us today was that we were not active enough in any structure. I can understand these discussions are out there and of course a million coaches after the game know it better. You can discuss this with a million coaches. I have to make a decision on the pitch. It’s how I analyse the match and I take the responsibility.“At the moment no regrets. The team gave everything and we were very very close. We deserved to be up 1-0. We played one of our better matches, maybe our best match under the circumstances. The team was top – we couldn’t bring it over the line.”England managed only 12% possession between Gordon’s goal and conceding the winner and Kane felt they had been overwhelmed by Argentina.“Just gutted, gutted for the boys, gutted for everyone: the team, the staff, the fans,” he told the BBC. “We played well for the vast majority of it. Once we went 1-0 up we just seemed to try to hold on which, at this level, is not enough. After the goal, whether it was them putting more men forward or us being able to match them man for man, it just was wave after wave and we were just trying to hold on, put the blocks in, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”Bellingham appeared to strike the Argentina substitute Valentín Barco on the back of the head after the game had finished and had to be dragged away by the reserve goalkeepers Dean Henderson and James Trafford. He was not punished by the officials.The Manchester United defender Lisandro Martínez celebrated on the pitch after the game with a banner that read “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” (“The Malvinas are Argentinian”) in reference to the Falklands war.Argentina came from 2-0 down to beat Egypt in the last 16 and Lautaro Martínez said the team had again never given up. “England pressed hard for about 60 minutes. After finding the goal, they dropped back, and that gave us more composure in circulating the ball and spreading the play..”An emotional Lionel Scaloni paid tribute to his side’s fighting spirit. “This team plays best when they are facing adversity,” Argentina’s head coach said. “We had a challenging situation, there was blood in the water and we went for it. We had six or seven chances and the ball wouldn’t go in but the team fought until the end. After they scored, we really proved ourselves – it shows what football means to us and it goes beyond tactics.”

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England head coach made changes that would have led to Southgate and Eriksson being hammeredLionel Messi has seen buses reverse into position before. England did not confront the greatest player of all time with anything new when they dropped back with a place in the World Cup final within reach. The negativity was lamentable and it was no surprise when punishment arrived in the form of a clinical Argentina fightback in Atlanta.This was a tale as old as time. There was a chance for England to push on after Anthony Gordon fired them ahead early in the second half, but they reverted to type. The mentality was passive and they looked scared to win. No one put a foot on the ball and offered control. Harry Kane? Invisible in another game. The midfield? Outplayed, outrun and outclassed by Alexis Mac Allister and Enzo Fernández. Thomas Tuchel? Outwitted by Lionel Scaloni, whose substitutions made a difference, and too quick to retreat when there was so long left for England to defend their lead.This was supposed to be where Tuchel came into his own. The master tactician, the expensive foreign coach, the finisher capable of succeeding where Sir Gareth Southgate failed. It had been a good tournament for Tuchel until this point. His changes had worked in successive knockout wins and for a moment it even seemed his big call here, starting Morgan Rogers on the right, was going to work.Rogers made the opening goal in the 55th minute, his cross converted by Gordon at the far post. From there, though, England were miserable. Forget about mustering an attack, they barely completed a pass. Incredibly, they seemed to think they could survive with ultra-defence, panicked clearances and scare after scare for more than 30 minutes. Inevitably, they were wrong.It is a very English trait, that inclination to hold what we have against the best sides. It happened under Sven-Göran Eriksson at Euro 2004, advantages against France and Portugal frittered away, and it was a failing under Southgate, who was criticised for not being proactive enough when England lost big knockout games against Croatia and Italy after scoring early.The idea was that it would be different under Tuchel. He was key to Chelsea defying the odds against Manchester City in the Champions League final in 2021. The German is a whir of activity on the touchline, always thinking about his next move, always strategising, and it is worth stressing that England’s uneven run to the last four has been powered in part by smart in-game management from Tuchel.Equally there has been no true identity to England’s play. They have laboured against low blocks and produced horrible spells in every game. Tuchel failed to produce a complete performance and his side handled this situation terribly.There was an immediate shift after Gordon’s goal, a heroic Djed Spence tackle denying Giuliano Simeone. For a while a robbery was on the cards. Cristian Romero drew a spectacular save from Jordan Pickford. Mac Allister headed against a post. England wilted, offering no intensity. They were defending like a lower-league side in an FA Cup tie, mustering just 12% possession between going 1-0 up and falling 2-1 behind. Kane was back in his box to bash the ball away. Jude Bellingham barely had a sniff. Rogers had one break but his shot was blocked.For England, who finished with one shot on target, going through to face Spain would have been a travesty. There was no jeopardy for Argentina to endure, no sense they could be caught out if they pushed forward. The only surprise was that it took so long for them to equalise through Fernández, who was under no pressure when he scored from long range.England were not even defending their box well. Argentina exposed them in the air and Scaloni felt the mood swing. He removed his defensive shield and brought on a winger, Nicolás González replacing Leandro Paredes.Argentina showed intent. Tuchel showed fear. It felt premature when he switched to the back five that saw England over the line against Mexico and Norway. England were asking for trouble when Gordon, one of their few outlets, made way for Ezri Konsa.There was exhaustion everywhere. Reece James and Declan Rice, just back from illness, faded. Tuchel kept making defensive changes. Nico O’Reilly joined Rogers and Elliot Anderson in midfield. Suddenly Dan Burn was marking Messi. It was only ending one way.These were changes that would have led to Southgate and Eriksson being hammered. Tuchel succeeded only in neutralising England’s attacking threat. He could have kept Argentina honest by bringing on the fresh legs of Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, Eberechi Eze or Noni Madueke. There was a period when both Argentina’s centre-backs were on bookings but they were never exposed.There will be focus on the midfield choices. Kobbie Mainoo, a nimble technician, was not given a minute. Jordan Henderson has a story to tell about a broken wrist. There were no replacements for Anderson and Rice when they tired. Tuchel made his choices. He never knew why he picked Mainoo over Adam Wharton and Alex Scott.England deserved their punishment. Bellingham tried to carry the ball forward at 1-1 but was crowded out by four blue shirts. It was never going to extra time. Mac Allister hit the same post. Lautaro Martínez, another attacking substitute, headed in the winner.England lobbed aimless balls towards Burn and Ivan Toney during added time. Emi Martínez claimed a cross and went down with an apparent injury, but who was he kidding? Argentina’s goalkeeper had barely had a kick since England’s goal. How could he possibly have been cramping up?

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Falklands conflict adds ‘emotional’ edge to semi-finalManager has ‘no problem’ with Bellingham after outburstThomas Tuchel believes England will face an Argentina team “fuelled by history” in their World Cup semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday. It will be the sixth time that the nations have met at the tournament with the previous three coming after the Falklands war of 1982.The most controversial game was in the 1986 quarter-finals when Diego Maradona scored his “Hand of God” goal and Argentina won 2-1 en route to the title. Argentina triumphed on penalties in the last 16 in 1998 when David Beckham was sent off. Beckham gained a measure of revenge four years later when he scored from the penalty spot for a 1-0 group-stage victory. England won 3-1 at the group phase in 1962 and 1-0 in the quarter-finals in 1966, when they went on to become champions.Tuchel recognises the fierce fighting spirit in Argentina’s ranks and how they will give everything to retain the title they won in 2022. They hope to do so to provide Lionel Messi with a fitting send-off at what is expected to be his last World Cup.Some of Argentina’s players chanted a song in the dressing room after their 3-1 quarter-final win over Switzerland that references the Falklands war and pledges to win the World Cup for “Las Malvinas, por Diego and por la ultima de Leo” – “for the Falklands, for Diego and for Leo’s last”.Tuchel was asked whether he was aware of the aggressive edge to the fixture. “I know some of the players, I coached some of the players,” he said. “I can sense it. You can see it. They have this kind of edge. You can sense it when they’re going a goal down, when matches are tight.“They’re almost the same group as four years ago. You can see the cohesion, you can see the sacrifice that they put into it. They believe in their style. And their style is a very emotional style. It was in Qatar and it is now.“And, of course, history … they are also fuelled by that. They are fuelled by history, it means a lot to them. So this is what we basically expect, and what we are up against. But we are also emotional, we have the grit, we have the mentality that it takes to go up against it. And we are ready for it.”Tuchel also made it clear there was no lingering issue between him and Jude Bellingham. The manager was critical of the technical side of his team’s performance in the 2-1 extra-time win over Norway in the quarter-final. Bellingham, who scored both the goals, was unimpressed when that part of the assessment was relayed to him. The midfielder said Tuchel maybe did not know what it was like to play in such a game.“Our comments come from the same place – from being competitive and having the edge when competition is on,” said Tuchel. “He [Bellingham] was just confronted with a critique of my side. I [also] called him a world-class player. I said he had world-class actions again to decide the match. I said the mentality is outstanding of this team. All of that was not part of the question.“I would maybe also bite back when I come from 120 minutes, score two goals and give literally everything that is in my body. It’s just a very normal reaction for a player of his mindset. So no problem.“I spoke to the whole team. We debriefed [the game]. I spoke to the whole team after in the dressing room, which was basically the same message. And I explained it again on Sunday evening to just move on forward. Then, in the [same] talk, we put on a new direction, a new head, which is semi-final and Argentina.”Marc Guéhi ramped up the mind games by insisting the onus is on Argentina to defend their mantle as world champions. “There isn’t pressure on us,” the defender said. “What’s the pressure? The onus is on them. They’re the world champions. They need to come out, they need to defend their title. There’s no pressure on us at all.”Guéhi has shaken off a hamstring issue and is likely to continue his partnership with John Stones in central defence, with Ezri Konsa vying with Reece James for a spot at right-back. Konsa, who started at-full back against Norway, was unable to give much insight into Argentina’s style.“We haven’t managed to watch any of their games,” he said. “I’m sure when we have the meeting tonight or tomorrow we’ll see some clips of them and see what we can do to overcome them.”