England secured a third-place finish at the World Cup with a 6-4 win over France, but it hasn’t quite made up for the painful defeat that saw them knocked out in the semi-final.
Fans and pundits have been highly critical of England’s performance against Argentina, with Thomas Tuchel receiving the brunt of it.
After Saturday’s win against France, the German coach doubled down on his defense of the campaign, suggesting the reaction has been too negative. He wants his team’s efforts to be recognised after they achieved their highest finish at the tournament in 60 years.
Thomas Tuchel suggests reaction to England’s World Cup exit has been unfair
Tuchel fiercely defended his tactical decisions in the Argentina game, even when US President Donald Trump piled on the criticism. He feels as though the reaction to their exit has been disproportionate given what they achieved.
During his final media appearance of the tournament after a crazy third place play-off win over France, the England boss made one final argument.
He said: “The press conference yesterday felt as if we went out in group stage without a win, to be very honest.
“Twenty-four hours later we had our biggest success in 60 years. I think the low and the drama about what happened against Argentina was too low, but that’s part of it.
“The best thing you can do is react on the pitch and get the next win, everything else is just talking. Talking doesn’t get you points. Talking doesn’t get you wins. So you have to endure it.”
In fairness to Tuchel, he isn’t saying he got nothing wrong. He just doesn’t think the bad outweighs the good.
He added: “I don’t think that I lost the trust. Whatever happened in the final 30 minutes against Argentina, why it happened, whatever happened in the last 10 minutes, we were close, but it’s my job to take decisions. My decisions, my interventions, my substitutions, the change of structure.
“It did not have the effect that I wanted, so I have to live with this. It’s very painful for me because I did it in good faith. I did it with a clear plan and a clear idea behind it. It didn’t work out so I take the blame and the responsibility.”
England fans are never going to react well to a major tournament exit. 60 years of heartbreak makes every occasion like the one on Wednesday feel like life or death.
😡 What was Thomas Tuchel's biggest mistake at the World Cup? Was it not starting Bukayo Saka vs Argentina?
It’s at least two more years now that England have to wait to try and break their trophy drought. From the sounds of it, Tuchel believes he will be there for the next one as well.
As he put it: “I said yesterday we want to close this gap [to the top three nations] and that started today. This team has built something very special in the last seven weeks and we will never negotiate on that.
“I still stand by my words that we need to play better football under pressure. We need to manage games better under pressure.”
Is Tuchel the man to take England forward? Jury’s still out.
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