15 Jul 2026 22:37:34
I understand the dissapoinment.
I don't understand the anti Tuchel brigade now. We're a not a ball playing team. We're not blessed with technical silky players through out the team.
England are a physical and at times explosive side.
Messi is 39 and look at some of his moment's tonight. The highest of quality, it is what it is. I was never overly confident.
Jed Spence was outstanding tonight and not one of us would ever had had him on the pitch.
Kane was asked and explained the team sat back, they wernt asked too.
Tuchel made decisions probably based on Argentina getting a real grip on the game. It didn't work.
Would Rashford and Toney really have changed much? We're not blessed with great attacking players from the bench.
15 Jul 2026 22:51:19
Tuchel threw in the towel. Not often I would agree with Rooney but Tuchel's tactic cost us dearly tonight.
{Ed025's Note - not only Tuchel though MOT, the players need to look at themselves in the mirror mate..
15 Jul 2026 22:54:51
So, if you have a physical and explosive side, you should play 10 men in your own box with no outball?
{Ed025's Note - disgraceful SR, a cross between Arsenal and Everton mate and everyone sitting back hoping to defend a 1-0 lead..
15 Jul 2026 23:04:28
I don't think the plan was to sit back at all, Argentina forced us back and nearly scored twice before the change.
Tuchel reacted to the new reality of the match. We had something to hold on at that point.
I may have made the same decision.
This team, with the work started by Southgate, has given me new belief in the national team and I do think we have the right man in Tuchel.
{Ed025's Note - i beg to differ FORNAX, England played boring football...went ahead then shat themselves mate against a poor Argentinian side..
15 Jul 2026 23:11:05
Fornax, absolutely agree.
England's legs were going and our bench simply isn't great attacking wise. I hope Wharton kicks on and gets better and better. You need a midfielder in there to keep it flowing and moving.
15 Jul 2026 23:12:33
Something, their legs were going. The press was impossible after 70 minutes. Toney, yes, I believe should have come on earlier, but the rest of the subs made sense.
England do not have top class attacking players to come on from the bench.
15 Jul 2026 23:15:28
I'm sorry, but beating Doctor Congo, Norway and flipping Mexico doesn't mean gash.
Same old thing, soon as they play a real nation. Gone.
15 Jul 2026 23:22:44
When you have Dan burn up top for the last ten, it's game over.
Appalling really.
15 Jul 2026 23:29:25
Ron, he could've put Watkins or Toney on when it was clear that Kane couldn't run anymore (not that he does run much in the first place these days) to give you some chance of chasing stuff down and maybe pressuring the Argentine defenders at least somewhat, when they had the ball.
You can say "their legs were going", if you like, but as a manager, you have to make subs to try and reduce the impact of that.
Bring on someone who might be able to get on the ball and complete a pass or two. Or bring on a forward or winger who'll chase after things. Tuchel chose instead to pack the team with defenders, which let Argentina walk the ball to within 20 yards of the England goal all the time. Of course, they were going to score.
It's ultimately no skin off my nose that Tuchel bottled it. I'm not English, and just found it hilarious.
15 Jul 2026 23:30:41
Saka was on the bench.
12% possession in the 37 minutes between England's goal and Argentina's winner. That's capitulation.
Your opponent can't score if they don't have the ball. They needed to strengthen midfield, but instead they piled a load of defenders on the box.
15 Jul 2026 23:33:09
Liverpool, you mean quality opposition.
Those nations did very well and represented their countries greatly.
We are not blessed with great quality throughout, or that perform as well for England. We lack in midfield and the wide areas.
15 Jul 2026 23:42:15
Ron, what midfielders? There's no one that's going to keep the ball and keep it flowing. Wharton can do that, but needs to improve a level.
Anderson is an outstanding player. Rice is decent for England. He gets found out against better opposition. Bellingham isn't a central midfielder.
Our midfield is ok, but against the better technical sides, we always get found out. England beed Wharton to improve a level.
Something, lol. Be serious mate. Those players are average. Toney might have done something if put in sooner.
15 Jul 2026 23:54:16
We sat back, let them cross the ball, which is ok if we can defend them, but they were getting on to the end of those crosses.
Maybe England's legs did go, but I doubt Spain or Argentina will rely on running and pressing to win the thing.
We couldn't keep hold of the ball, and hoped that some good to average defenders would see us home for over half an hour.
We didn't know what to do when we went 1-0 after 55 minutes, and that is worrying.
16 Jul 2026 00:00:05
Tuchel backed himself into a corner with the squad he picked. There are technical players and better wingers he could have selected. Saka was clearly not fit enough to be selected. Toney, Henderson & Mainoo were complete wastes of squad spaces as they didn't play. Madueke is woeful.
For a squad apparently built to bring the best out of Kane, Kane was pretty poor for most of the tournament imo.
Tuchel made a mistake putting so many defenders on, but it also just shows how poor our defenders are that even with 8 of them in the box, Argentina still managed to score a header.
16 Jul 2026 00:03:22
Watch Cape Verde against Argentina and see how they play on the front foot. That team is Messi on his last legs, literally, and 10 plumbers. That was as sackable an offense as it gets from Tuchel, who took off everyone just to defend and get the goal peppered for 40-odd minutes.
{Ed025's Note - absolutely Warya..
16 Jul 2026 00:06:49
We were competitive and combative until we scored, then the manager and the players all bottled it and tried to sit back when they should have been brave and carried on as they were. Serves them right. I have absolutely zero sympathy.
16 Jul 2026 00:44:40
We do have more technical players like Cole Palmer, Trent, Phil Foden, but Tuchel chose not to pick them. That's on him.
We needed players who could get us up the pitch. The absolute worst thing we could do was put more defenders on and sink deeper. Argentina have too much quality to surrender possession in front of your own box for half an hour.
Plus, we simply don't have good enough defenders to defend our own box in a low block like that for half an hour.
Our defenders are the weakest part of the team.
The only way to manage that game was to flood the midfield, keep the ball and keep them away from our goal as much as possible.
We did the opposite. We emptied the midfield and allowed them to pin us in far too easily and the inevitable happened.
16 Jul 2026 00:44:42
To be fair, I think Tuchel did a great job getting to a World Cup semi final with this dreadful England squad. There's not a lot of quality in the England team these days.
I thought sitting back rather than pushing for a second was an obvious mistake as soon as we started doing it, but still, a semi isn't bad considering.
Nobody would be complaining if it had worked.
16 Jul 2026 01:50:09
England didn't have the composure to hold the ball for long enough and wrestle some momentum back.
Personally, I think it was mainly mentality, experience to win those big moments.
16 Jul 2026 05:11:56
Shocking goalkeeping from Pickford for the equaliser.
16 Jul 2026 00:59:03
I am waiting to see if FIFA has the cojones to punish the argie team for their clearly political statement with that banner which against their rules. I doubt it very much
16 Jul 2026 05:54:22
As a non-English, I thought Tuchel and England did well (mostly) and overachieved with this squad.
Few thoughts. For me, Tuchel fell short twice:
1. The first one was the lack of creativity in the WC squad selection. I knew it from before a ball was kicked this WC. I actually thought you guys would lose to Mexico. I would've taken Trent over Chalobah when the Livramento injury happened, Wharton over Mainoo, Gibbs-White or Palmer over Toney, Bowen over Madueke. With those you get more creativity, hunger and "X" factor.
2. This Argentina game after going one up. I would've added more mids and wingers rather than defenders. What you needed was to keep the ball and score a second as Argentina got desperate and open up when chasing a goal. It was extremely stupid to sit back and give Argentina all possession. Tuchel should've made better subs and told the players to push up the field.
Take Kane off, throw Saka on the right and let Rogers play attacking mid/false 9. Swap Rice or Anderson for Mainoo or Eze for fresh legs. Pile up the centre of the pitch and stretch the field with the wingers.
Still, I think England overachieved with that squad and was fortunate with the fixtures. Same as Argentina who are very poor and should've never been in the finals.
Also important to note, the English squad would be the most tired of all teams in the WC. The heat + the extremely congested fixtures was never going to do England any favours.
I think you guys should still be proud though. I really wish England would've made it to the finals and I hate that Argentina has made it to it. They don't deserve this finals or any of their previous 3 WC stars because they've cheated or been helped every single time, bloody cheaters.
{Ed025's Note - PROUD!!!, your having a Giraffe Greg, i was disgusted by the way we totally bottled it by playing anti-football mate..
15 Jul 2026 23:34:27
I'm sorry Ron and Fornax you both are totally incorrect. This result is all about the decision your manager made after getting the lead. He ballsed it so well that it's up there with the biggest balls up ever. Ever. No debate about it.
{Ed025's Note - im with you SG..
16 Jul 2026 06:18:20
England are fairly weak defensively, lack creativity, and that showed last night.
We only really faced one tough opponent before last night, and that was Mexico. Norway were fairly workman like, and could have easily beaten us as well.
Argentina deserved the win. They could have scored four. We hardly created anything and were susceptible to crosses. The World Cup has been pretty good, but overall the quality of teams has been better in the past.
16 Jul 2026 06:34:15
Imagine using the same tactics, of playing with 6 defenders, to defend a lead against Mexico, Norway and then Argentina.
No imagination and no bravery.
England got what they deserved. Move on.
England had loads in the bench, even if it was just simply to keep applying the press, but to go defensive, on 60 minutes, with additional time to play, is just incompetence.
16 Jul 2026 06:44:50
We were awful after taking the lead. Yeah, fair enough if you are going to counter attack, but we had no one up there.
You don't sit back and let the Argentina players do what they want, and why was Kane even on the pitch? We never have anyone upfront when he's on.
Why not bring on Watkins or Rashford earlier, and use their pace to keep the 2 Argentina CBs, who are both on yellow cards, thinking, and he took off Gordan, the one forward player that seemed to be make the defenders wary.
We s*** the bed after scoring, and that's on Tuchal.
16 Jul 2026 08:03:42
Tuchel subs have worked almost every game regardless of how much I've questioned them, yesterday he got it wrong.
The squad he took, wasn't the best available to him, now if we'd have won that would have been justified, but we never, so he'll rightfully catch flack.
Trent has always and will always be a better player than James, and should be England's starter. With a midfield of Rice and Anderson, Trent was needed.
Maguire, for all his flaws, performs in an England shirt. Palmer, although not having a great season, was needed as a plan B.
Saka is borderline finished, being run into the ground by Arteta, however Eze and Madueke should never be near an England squad, they're just not good enough.
Maguire, Trent, Gibbs-White, Palmer and even young Rio should have been there, Trent and Maguire starting with the others being a 'we need a goal against Argentina let's throw something at the wall.'
Tuchel is still the right man for me, though he got it wrong last night.
The refereeing this tournament has been the worst in memory, it's an absolute farce game in game out, with favourites being easily recognisable. FIFA will have their 'changing of the guard' moment with Yamal/Messi and that weird picture of Messi bathing him will be everywhere. This World Cup's been awful for the sport, but good for the 'product'.
Argentina stepped up when needed, a lot of which was allowed by our style of play, I'll be a Spain fan this weekend, the behaviour of Argentina is abhorrent time and time again.
16 Jul 2026 10:18:30
I agree with ed25 here tbh, I think it was the manager and the players that were at fault, it was a typical England reaction to succumbing to the pressure of being and competing at the level we're supposed to be at, we get to the semi final, against a beatable Argentina side that should no longer be in the competition, and you s*** the bed, because it always seems to be a surprise when we get to a semi final or final of these competitions. That mentality needs to change. We lost the game mentally, to a team that man for man is not as good but has been here before.
It seemed to have happened instantaneously after scoring the goal, we just thought the hard bit was done so see it out. Whilst that was happening, I genuinely couldn't see how we could change the momentum with the players we had on. Unfortunately we relied heavily on individual brilliance this World Cup, so maybe we were also in a false position. I think like for like changes should have happened long before they scored their first goal to give us an outlet up top and some fresh legs at the back, but we took the risk of just lucking our way to a 1-0 win and at 1-1 it was clear we were trying to keep it that way and make it to penalties. At that point I knew it was over. It's just a shame England can never have consistent coaching set up that builds a sustainable model in the way Spain, France, Argentina etc have done. We always seem to freestyle in that department and it doesn't work, at some point we just have to accept that England are a physical side that suit that style of play more and aren't going to be technically sound despite the players we have. It's never really been Englands game as a team, we have individual players that bring joy in that sense, but I can never see England passing it around the box dominating through the lines like Argentina were yday after we scored. Whenever teams sit back against us, it's slow side to side waiting for someone to get open and waiting for our top player to pull a rabbit out the hat. We never look like we know what we're doing unless teams open up against us.
I think we did well this World Cup, but I think we got to the stage we should be getting to, and against that ratty Argentina team, we should be in the final. Losing to Spain, France who are clearly better teams I'd understand, but losing to Argentina is difficult, not just in a sporting sense but politically also. And before anyone says it's just a football match, they made it more than a football match, and have done throughout the competition, it's all over social media. Their fans, their government, their team etc all very dislikable, in addition to fifa favouring them, it's very frustrating. I really hope Spain do them but something tells me it'll be a similar story for them.