England 1-2 Argentina: Did Thomas Tuchel’s tactics cost England place in World Cup final?

England have showed character at this World Cup, coming from behind to defeat DR Congo at the last-32 stage and Norway in the quarter-finals.

“The difference is hanging on against Norway or Mexico [in the last 16]. They have not got the quality this Argentina team have got in terms of the ability on the ball and the ability they have to punish you,” former England captain Alan Shearer told BBC Sport.

“Tuchel played his cards very, very early and it has backfired.”

England looked to have taken full control of the semi-final against their old foes when Gordon put them ahead.

England’s fans celebrated wildly – but then their team opted to sit back and defend.

“That was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel,” Chris Sutton, a Premier League winner with Blackburn in 1994-95, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina had.

“It’s all on the coach. 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?”

England have come undone against Argentina in the past.

Who can forget Diego Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal at the 1986 World Cup or the 1998 World Cup defeat that burns so deep?

England, however, have no-one but themselves to blame for Wednesday’s loss.

“Norway and Mexico panicked against England,” former England goalkeeper Joe Hart told BBC Sport.

“I didn’t see one bit of panic from that Argentina side. I saw belief, I saw them realising they could free up the great man Lionel Messi in the pocket, and they were running all over England.

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“Gareth Southgate took a lot of criticism for the big moments with England, when they had the lead in big games and shut up shop. I don’t see that anything has changed in that big moment out there.”

So what were the changes that frustrated England fans so much?

With England leading 1-0, many expected Tuchel to go for another goal – but instead the German made three defensive changes.

He brought Konsa on for Gordon in the 72nd minute – switching to a back five – before bringing on further defensive reinforcements 10 minutes later in Burn and O’Reilly.

Tuchel sent on Rashford and Toney, but it proved too little too late.

“I felt the changes we made at 1-0, that if Argentina scored we wouldn’t make extra time,” said Rooney.

Former England defender Micah Richards told BBC Sport: “When England scored that first goal they should have gone for the second.

“Yes, you respect their quality, but dropping deep allowed Argentina to get into their flow.”