Thomas Tuchel’s position as England manager has come under scrutiny as the Three Lions’ performance was criticized following the England international’s red card in Wednesday night’s World Cup game against Argentina.
Manager Thomas Tuchel has come under intense scrutiny following England’s defeat (Image: Ryan Pierse – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Manager Thomas Tuchel retains the support of the Football Association and its chief executive Mark Bullingham and plans to stay despite the crushing defeat to Argentina.
The German manager has come under scrutiny for England’s approach after facing the World Cup hosts. However, Tuchel will remain at the helm of the Three Lions’ Euro 2028 campaign. The former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager signed a two-year contract extension in February, which runs until the end of that competition.
“First of all, the World Cup is not over,” Tuchel said when asked about his future. “There are still games left. I’m not really looking forward to them, but there are still games to play. Of course we’ll keep going after that. We’re under contract until our home Euros, so it’s hard to think too far ahead right now, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Coach Bullingham released a statement after England’s defeat, declaring: “I am heartbroken that it was such a close game. Both the players and Thomas gave their all today and the team, coaches and staff could not have worked harder during the tournament.”
“I want to thank them all, and I also want to say a big thank you to our amazing fans here in the States and back home. We felt your support every step of the way, and we’re so disappointed we couldn’t go further.”
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Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni admitted his team “smelled blood” after Anthony Gordon’s opener from Enzo Fernandes and Lautaro Martínez turned the game around after England started to fall behind. England switched to a back five, bringing on Ezri Konsa, Dan Byrne and Nico O’Reilly for the final 18 minutes.
Tuchel has not been able to escape criticism from former World Cup winners. Former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas described England’s approach as “cowardly”.
“They (England) score a goal and go back. It’s a cowardly move,” Casillas wrote on X. “They didn’t come out of their own half aggressively and allowed (Argentina) to get further forward. The inevitable happens.”
Thomas Muller, who lifted the trophy in 2014, said: “I can’t believe and I can’t understand how England went into this game after taking the lead. I can’t understand how they invited Argentina to make cross after cross in perfect cross positions.”
Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton was harsher in his assessment and questioned Tuchel’s future. He said: “That was a disaster with Thomas Tuchel’s coaching.
“The fact that England come forward and basically hand over the initiative to Argentina. It’s a very simple game of football, defending deep and having another defender, and you have to get on the pitch.”
Thomas Tuchel has no regrets after being criticized for coming on as a substitute in the loss against Argentina (Image: getty Images)
“You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against Argentina’s quality. My concerns are all about the coach. He made changes, he was negative. So the question I ask is: how can we trust Thomas Tuchel to take this team forward?”
“No matter what anyone says, England have had a generous run in this competition, but they haven’t played well over 90 minutes.
“We had a big chance to get over the line in the World Cup semi-final against an average Argentina team. And they were far from average in the last 30 minutes, they didn’t look average, but I think England helped us with that. I think that was a mistake by the manager.”
Despite this, Tuchel appeared to have no regrets and defended his approach. Asked after the game about his changes, he said: “I can talk to a million coaches about this, but I have to make decisions on the pitch.
“I analyzed the game and played the game in a certain way, so that’s my responsibility. I have no regrets at the moment. The team gave everything and we were very close. We deserved to lead 1-0.”
“We played a better game, probably the best game in this situation. The team was on top and although we couldn’t get over the line, we have no regrets.”
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