If the English press and past players were filthy yesterday following England’s World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina, they are livid today after Thomas Tuchel’s most recent explanation for his side’s shortcomings.
The German manager claimed a weakness in English football’s “DNA” may have been to blame for his team blowing a 1-0 lead in Atlanta with Argentina scoring 85th and 92nd minute goals to advance to Monday morning’s final.
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“I think ball possession plays a crucial role; it’s maybe not in our DNA like it is in our Spanish DNA or in our Argentinian-Brazilian DNA, to take the ball and control the game with the ball,” Tuchel said.
The comment has stirred up the mob, who already had their pitch forks ready.
Tuchel’s defensive tactics after Anthony Gordon scored the opening goal in the 55th minute has already sparked outrage with the likes of Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney saying “we have to be honest. The decisions that Tuchel has made cost us tonight”.
The former Bayern Munich, Chelsea and PSG manager insists that his message to England’s substitutes before they came on was to “play higher” despite his side having all 11 players behind the ball at times in the second half.
While The Telegraph reported that Tuchel will lay blame on playing at altitude in Mexico City and in scorching heat Miami in their previous two matches against Mexico and Norway for cooking his players and they sat deep out as a result of exhaustion.
But his most recent comments have been seen as a deflection.
French football journalist Julien Laurens told BBC 5 Live Sport that those who have followed his managerial club across some of Europe’s top clubs will know that is nothing new.
“This is Thomas Tuchel for you. It is never his fault,” Laurens said.
And the lack of accountability does not sit well with English fans as a “toxic” environment now surrounds the Three Lions.
Even one of their most ardent supporters, co-writer of the song ‘It’s Coming Home’ David Baddiel, took to social media to blast Tuchel saying his “DNA” comment “simply isn’t true”.
“He has been England manager for more than a year and a half and, unfortunately, has had a reverse alchemy at this World Cup – turning believers into doubters. Many, many angry doubters. It is toxic,” The Telegraph’s chief football correspondent Jason Burt wrote of Tuchel.
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Despite the negativity, Tuchel recently signed an extension on his £5 million to £6 million annual deal with the FA through to the 2028 Euros, which will be played in Great Britain and Ireland.
FA bosses have said they want the German to stay on and following the defeat to Argentina, Tuchel said he wants to see out his deal.
His contract includes a performance clause but the response from both parties indicates that a semi-final run was deemed satisfactory.
With England given one of the top four seeds by FIFA, meaning they could not play any of Argentina, Spain or France until the semi-finals, anything less may have forced their hand.
England did not face a nation ranked in the FIFA’s top ten before Argentina, and Burt noted that an earlier exit would have surely spelled curtains for Tuchel.
“But remember England were 15 minutes from going out of this World Cup in the last 32 to the might of the DR Congo. If they had done so, Tuchel would have had to go,” he noted.
Tuchel staying on will require a serious repair job, however.
“Right now it looks like Tuchel’s relationship with England is broken. The question is whether he has the ability and, crucially, the humility to rebuild it,” Burt added.
“This was supposed to be an elite manager who was hired, at great expense, to get England over the line. Instead he has undeniably taken them backwards. The final quarter of the exit to Argentina was as bad as it gets.
“In the 37 minutes between Anthony Gordon’s goal and Lautaro Martinez’s winner, England had 12 per cent possession. In the 18 minutes before Enzo Fernandez’s equaliser, England completed three passes to Argentina’s 122.
“They conceded in the 85th minute and broke the record for the latest a team had led in a World Cup semi-final and lost without the game going to extra time.”
Just about every think piece on England’s semi-final demise has recalled Tuchel’s comments when he was appointed Three Lions boss last year.
Asked for his assessment on England’s loss to Spain in the final of the 2024 Euros under previous manager Gareth Southgate, Tuchel replied: “They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament in my observation than having the excitement and hunger to win it.”
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Understandably, Tuchel has been accused of hypocrisy.
His attempt to park the bus for more than half an hour to cling on to a one-goal lead as England did with ten men against Mexico ultimately backfired.
The decisions to replace goal scorer Gordon with defender Ezri Konsa, to bring on Dan Burn to flood the box with four centre backs, to take off midfielder Declan Rice for another defender in Nico O’Reilly and to not inject attackers Marcus Rashford and Ivan Toney until they had three minutes of stoppage time left to snatch an equaliser have all been widely ridiculed.
But Tuchel’s “DNA” comments have also shined the spotlight on talented players who could have given them greater ball control.
Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo was left on the bench.
So too were Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke.
While fellow Premier League stars Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, who possess creativity and flair with the ball, were left at home.
So too was former Liverpool, now Real Madrid right back Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“Tuchel restricted his options. The aim was to have wingers going down the outside and creating overloads,” The Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg explained.
“Tuchel did not want Palmer and Foden cutting in and clogging up the middle.”
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As a result, the overwhelming consensus is that Tuchel made the rod for his own back.
“He can complain about England lacking control when they led against Argentina but he left out players who are comfortable on the ball,” Steinberg wrote.
“It was a conscious choice from Tuchel and what makes it worse is that he did not even stick to his plan.”
“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,” Steinberg added.
“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 brought veteran experience to the squad but the 36-year-old made one brief appearance off the bench in the final group game against Panama before breaking his arm, falling off an advertising board during the celebrations in Mexico City.
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While Mainoo did not get on the pitch all the tournament as reports emerged that Tuchel had planned to use him as back-up to Rice as the Arsenal star battled his fitness issues, but the manager was unimpressed with what he saw from the 21-year-old in training.
Still, Tuchel insisted after the Argentina loss that he had “no regrets” despite promising to instil an attacking, exciting brand of football and retreating at crucial moments.
“The patches in which they played well were painfully sparse, with the highlight probably that 25-minute spell after half-time in the opening game against Croatia and the backs-against-the-wall bravery in Mexico,” Burt wrote.
“The rest of it? It was distinctly and undeniably underwhelming. And Tuchel, despite his absurd declaration that he has “no regrets”, knows it. He spoke so much about identity, but admits he failed to give England one, beyond trying to play like a Premier League side. Which, frankly, will never work in international football. Not when you face the big teams.”
The Guardian’s Barney Ronay shared similar sentiments.
“You can’t make a culture. There is no real English way of playing,” he wrote.
“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.”
Of course, the calls have grown louder for Tuchel to be sacked.
The Sun has led the charge on pushing for former Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to be headhunted for the position.
The tabloid dug up comments from three years ago about the Catalan’s future prospects to mount their case.
“I would like to train a national team for a World Cup or a European Championship or a Copa America,” Guardiola said in 2023 a few months after winning the treble with City.
“I don’t know if that would be in five, ten or 15 years’ time. I would like that experience.”
There are still several people within English football circles that believe the latest failure does not solely fall on the manager’s shoulders.
And that the England boss should not always have a saviour complex.
The Three Lions have still not made a World Cup final since their triumph at Wembley in 1966.
Atlanta 2026 joins Moscow 2018 and Turin 1990 as World Cup semi-final losses in the past 60 years.
In recent times there have also been defeats to Spain and Italy in the past two editions of the Euros.
A major trophy continues to desert England regardless of who is in charge.
Harry Kane touched on the notion by speaking of “a missing piece” post-game on Thursday morning.
“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?” Ronay pondered.
Former England fullback Gary Neville believes the players need to stand up and take more responsibility, and hinted that part of the sting of Tuchel’s “DNA” comment is that there might be some truth to it.
“These are patterns that have emerged time and time again. All of us who have played for England are guilty of it, so the idea of me lumping in on Tuchel just isn’t going to happen,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“I was just as big a part of the problem as the lads who played last night that sunk deep into our own box. It’s something in our psyche, something we’ve done that puts pressure on ourselves and we’ve been knocked out of tournaments so many times in this way. It’s not good enough.”
Such a measured response goes against the tide in a nation that famously rides the rollercoaster of victory and defeat.
There is also no doubt that it is easier to blame a German for their most recent shortcoming than to look internally for the causes at more of than a half century of failures.
Especially when the FA had made it clear that outside influence was what was needed to finally breakthrough.
When Tuchel was appointed, many were quick to point out that no foreign manager has ever won a World Cup.
It is a remarkable statistic that will continue when either Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni or Spain’s Luis de la Fuente lifts the trophy in New Jersey in three days time.
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Those in English football who are willing to look internally, however, believe that there was no need to revert from keeping the faith in a homegrown manager.
“Thomas Tuchel was supposed to be the man who would turn water into wine. That was what the Football Association told us,” The Daily Mail’s chief sports writer Oliver Holt wrote.
“That was the rationale for turning its back on the work that Gareth Southgate had done with the England team and paying big money for a quick-fix super-coach who would win the World Cup.
“When Southgate left after the 2024 European Championship, the FA chose not to build on what he achieved. They did not have the courage to do what the Spanish Football Federation did when they promoted Luis de la Fuente, a successful coach of its youth teams, to the senior job when Luis Enrique left after the 2022 World Cup.
“Lee Carsley had won the European Under-21 Championship with England – and won it again last year – but was deemed not good enough by the FA, who abandoned their principles of a coaching pathway for English talent by appointing a foreign manager.”
Carsley may be in the spotlight sooner rather than later.
As Holt points out, the fun for those who delight in England’s downfall may only be just beginning.
There has already been a much publicised rift between Tuchel and star attacking midfielder Jude Bellingham, who Arsenal legend Ian Wright believes the team should be built around going forward.
While The Telegraph reported that disillusion has grown within the squad as the players were left baffled by Tuchel’s tactics against Argentina.
England defender Marc Guehi admitted as much in a post-match interview with the BBC when he said they should have “kept pushing”.
Perhaps following Argentina’s lead would sit better with the players going forward.
“If you’ve got a player with that capability, and I’m not saying that Jude Bellingham is Messi by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m saying Jude Bellingham has something,” Wright said on the Bill Simmons Podcast.
“He’s got some star quality. He’s got the ability to have moments in games, depending on how he is serviced. If we can get the ball wide, because it was Jude that made the run forward for the ball to go forward, for the ball to come across into Morgan (Rogers), or just to cross it into Anthony Gordon to score, it was Jude, absolutely we should be looking to say, listen, this is the main guy, and we want the main guy up there.
“We want to get him the ball as often as we can. We want to get the ball into him as often as we can. And we should start, we should start maybe playing through Jude, playing towards Jude.
“Everything should be, you know, like how Messi’s played, everything’s service Jude, so then he can then service everybody. Because we’ve seen in the games, and we’re not saying that they’re being unbelievable games and unbelievable opposition, but we’ve seen in those games that he is capable against anybody of grabbing a game by the scruff of his neck and running with it, just like Messi did.”
That may be a job for a new manager whenever they arrive, however, as the parallels are lining up between Tuchel’s club history and his current gig.
His most recent job was at Bayern Munich.
The Athletic reported in 2024 that his downfall with the Bundesliga giants came off the back of instructing players to sit deep once they had a lead in crunch Champions League knockout matches and a “disregard for team hierarchy and the status of leaders within the team”.
At Chelsea, where he won the Champions League, Blues chairman Todd Boehly described Tuchel as a “nightmare” to deal with on transfer matters and the German also felt out with several of the club’s first team players.
Tuchel also had a fractured relationship with the club hierarchy in his previous job at PSG.
The cards spell out that there is only one way this will end.
“The FA will not sack Tuchel because they have just given him a two-year extension to his contract but the manner of England’s exit from the World Cup and the disillusion it has spread means that they are stuck with a lame-duck manager to lead them into a home Euros in 2028,” Holt wrote.
“Tuchel’s history suggests that when things start to go south for him in a job, they go south very quickly. The worry for the FA, and for England fans, is that Wednesday’s semi-final defeat will be the prelude to a period when the coach’s relationship with them and his players goes downhill fast.”