FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

Have them as an option at least.

 

Even Holden brought it up on the US broadcast - by putting all of those defenders on you crowded the box but then without midfielders you are leaving the top of the box completely open and lo and behold that’s exactly what happened.

 

Even Southgate became more proactive and attack-minded after his first tournament. This "analysis" is honestly pathetic and worthy of a sack right away. Let Henderson coach them against France or whatever idc,

There were rumours in Germany the DFB first wanted Tuchel but after the job interviews they quickly decided against him and for Nagelsmann. Well, it worked with Nagelsmann at least for his first tournament and his football is never dull whether he´s losing or winning have to give him that. But even under the heavily criticied Southgate there has been more exciting football than under Tuchel imo.

 

One last thing

For 6 million (or whatever a year) I expect a lot better tactical nous and taking more responsibility

If you spend all your time saying " We are going for a second star. That's the expectation"

Time to go

 

Well it’s not their fault we are out but them both turning up completely knackered and carrying injuries certainly hasn’t helped our performances.

 

I thought Anderson was really poor for their first goal. No need to go towards the ball rather than watch Fernandez.

 

I kind of disagree, I mean sure Tuchel totally screwed up with the a subs but if we have so much more talent, why can’t we ever just control games with our players who just don’t seem to move well into space or can actually do one or two touch passes in tight spaces and keep the ball? We just don’t ever seem to be able to do this other than keep the ball in easy situations. Once the press is on we just give the ball up. Even against Norway and Mexico they had better players on the ball. Something isn’t right for me in this regard, maybe we just overhype our players, I don’t know.

 

Been watching every England major tournament since 2010.

I've never been more disappointed and angry over a loss like today.

manager's in-game planning than what Tuchel did after we scored. We all could see Argentina likely scoring and if they did then it was more likely they would win in normal time than England forcing extra time. That was my thought process when it was still 1-0 in the 80 minute period. Had we pulled that off then the victory would've been less sweeter because we played anti-football and we would've been very fortunate (I don't believe in luck). The narrative would've been Argentina bottling a massive opportunity to equalize rather than England holding on for dear life like warriors. I won't be sorry if Tuchel leaves based on today. I don't think the FA will sack him, but only if there's intense pressure from the fans and media.

Just absolutely gutted. I really thought today would be a good day and it felt like we'd win going 1-0 up. Unfortunately our manager had other ideas.

 

🚨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Thomas Tuchel: “There are millions of coaches who know it better after a defeat”.

“It was not a problem of structure. The match just changed completely. I make the decisions”. pic.twitter.com/YuJM19FvQ8

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 15, 2026

Harry Kane on whether this was his last World Cup: "It's still too early to say. I take it year by year and see how I feel. I love playing for England. But of course, four years is a long time. Then again, you can see someone like Messi still performing at the highest level even… pic.twitter.com/1vvBwYK11d

— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) July 15, 2026

 

I think we can very easily get trapped in a Ronaldo-like situation with Kane if we're not careful.

He'll keep scoring goals in qualifiers for a long time which for many will be enough to justify his spot in the starting lineup, but he's contributing less and less in terms of general play in games of this magnitude, which is a problem because he often doesn't score in them either - not even in his physical prime.

I don't think he's magically going to start scoring clutch goals (outside of pens) in quarter-finals and semi-finals of major tournaments as he approaches his late 30s. The DRC game was his defining moment for England but he's followed that up with anonymous showings in the later rounds - which unfortunately is the norm. This was his 6th international tournament for England and the pattern is clear.

I'm not saying drop him from the squad but we need another plan, and another plan that we're willing to deviate to in clutch moments in big games,

One thing that this tournament has done - and I never believed it anyway - is dispel the claim that England's fortunes live and die with Kane.

 

As bad as Southgate's paralysis when we were under the cosh was, at least he did actually always make subs when we did eventually concede.

For the life of me I cannot work out what Tuchel expected to happen after Argentina scored and we had a shapeless blob of defenders on the pitch. Was he trying to ride out till the end of normal time? Play for penalties? Who even knows.

 

He also said that he felt they needed to be pressing further forward but didn't have enough players high up the pitch to do it. I think that's about as close as someone like Harry Kane is ever going to get to openly saying "the manager ********ed it".

 

Portugal at least have Ramos. Who do we has coming through. Delap?

 

One win in 1966, whoop de doo. Most of us weren't alive then and it's so quintessentially English to hang on to something so ********ing long ago. Absolutely pathetic nation and bottle it in the big games. Inferior to Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Spain, Italy - you know teams that actually show up in big games.

Sorry guys I've had a drink but I'm so angry. I honestly don't think we should be regarded as a big national team any more. We're in the same category as Croatia and the Netherlands - a nearly team that doesn't have the backbone to turn up against a strong opponent with a genuine history of winning things.

The stats embarrass me - Argentina are no great shakes on paper, their best player is 39, and they had 15 shots to our 5 and 65% possession.

Tuchel won't be sacked but it is a genuinely awful performance against a team we should be going toe to toe with and certainly not being inferior to. I'm not sure if it's a mentality thing, an English thing, we all know these games are very fine margins but that wasn't fine margins at all, it was an English bottle job of highest proportions being outplayed by a team of similar strengths on paper and I'm embarrassed to be English tonight.

Probably time for me to go to bed.

 

The frustrating thing is that we kept being let off the hook with Argentina missing chances, giving us the chance to correct course around the 80-minute mark. Instead we doubled down by trying to flood the box even more. I just can't understand why Tuchel thought that was the best way to see the game out. It wasn't going to stop them creating chances; all it did was blunt our attack even more.

I was screaming for Saka.

 

Thomas Tuchel on England's Euro 2024 campaign 👀

"They were more afraid to drop out of the tournament than having the excitement and hunger to win it" 👀
pic.twitter.com/9O1qTAhBie

— TheSecretScout (@TheSecretScout_) July 15, 2026

From the man himself

 

He is saying we were defending too deep and not holding the ball immediately after our goal. That is true. The solution is not to throw more defenders on. They're not going to hold the ball better than our midfield and attack.

My solution would be to tell Kane and at least one other with pace, probably Gordon, to stay up the pitch. I would also bring on Saka to offer another pacy outlet able to hold up the ball.

Spain have the best defence in the tournament. They defend by holding onto the ball not by playing 5 defenders and another in midfield.

We're only criticising the substitutions after we took the lead. I was expecting changes earlier to give us more legs.

 

Thats very damning

 

How do you keep the ball with 7 defenders, one midfielder, and Bellingham Kane Rogers ? That’s not possible.

 

Gordon should never have been taken off. We should have gone for it and released the pressure. The goal Gordon was scored when Kane came almost all the way to the half way line to receive it. It was basically our only chance in the entire match. Argentina was not strong defensively but we did not even try to test them. Up a goal it was begging for us to exploit the gaps as they chased. But we instead sat back and hoped to soak up the pressure. Sigh.

 

Ain't just.

 

One word sums up that performance; cowardly.
1-0 up and start parking the bus. Why??

Every time. If Southgate had done what Tuchel had done out there tonight, people would be calling for him to be sacked with immediate effect.

He's made absolutely zero improvements in the time he's been in charge of that team, apart from rip up all the progress that was made from 2022-2024. Picked a terrible squad of players which everyone could see from a mile off would later come back to bite us.

And let's have it right, it was the players who dragged us this far in this tournament, not him.

 

How much would it cost to sack him now? Idiotic loser mentality offering a longer contract before the tournament starts.

 

Maybe it is passion. The England rugby team are in Argentina ready to play on Saturday and couple of them have posted social media films tonight of the massive celebrations on the street over this result. I just can’t imagine they would have been mass street parties if we had won tonight