FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

It is worrying for the Euros. Kane's last hurrah, but do we trust Tuchel to actually learn from this?... And actually pick a balanced squad this time - bin off his favourites who are aging or underperforming (likes of Henderson, Burn, Toney, Madueke), not pick unfit players (like Saka this tournament) and bring in form players or those that can help control midfield (Wharton, Garner, MGW, etc).

 

Wha too much for the FA.

I honestly wouldn’t be shocked to see them offer him a contract to 2030!

 

Too disappointed to say much.

Tuchel should be relieved of his duties ASAP as that fell far below the standards required.

 

Back to souless club football I suppose.

 

The biggest tragedy is Tuchel built a squad around Kane going into this tournament..

 

I think you can make a perfectly good argument that someone like Dominic Solanke would've been more useful than Kane tonight.

I don't know how many times it has to be repeated but replacing Kane does not necessarily mean bringing in a striker of comparable quality.

It means finding someone who can a) fit with and maximise the other players further up the pitch and b) perform a specific role to fit the dynamic of a game.

Ultimately Kane has these games in the late stages of tournaments where he's completely anonymous and fails to even perform basic functions of a 9.

In that scenario you're going to get improvement simply by bringing someone in who can occupy the two centre halves and make the ball stick in the final third.

 

Granted, wasn’t specifically focusing just on tonight but in the main with our players that are more talented, we never seem to be able to really control games against supposedly weaker opponents.

 

🚨 Harry Kane tells @TheAthleticFC too early to know if this was last World Cup with England but says Messi playing at 39 shows why he will “never put a limit on”. 32yo captain adds representing #England “my pride & joy; what love to do more than anything” https://t.co/G2KAXJYrvE pic.twitter.com/49HZROhwCx

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) July 15, 2026

 

Angry and now sad.

I didn't think we'd realistically beat Spain but to get to a World Cup final would've done wonders for our mentality and finally getting back to one. I can't remember this thread being so hostile towards and England manager and it's all warranted. I remember 2014 and 2016 with Hodgson, but it wasn't as serious as this.

Tired and defeated... We wait another two years, which is always the most depressing part. I'm logging off for the afternoon. Thank you guys for keeping me company while watching every game in my apartment... I'll remember this World Cup being at the Croatia game, living and dying through the Mexico game, and inevitably the tactical failure against Argentina.

It was a fun ride.

 

This Clarke guy or what his name is (the ITV interviewer) will be the happiest man on earth tonight. Probably getting several pieces of his great insight into how the supposed fallout between Bellingham and Tuchel caused all this ready. Unfortunately such gossip articles will quickly take away the blame from Tuchel´s coaching disasterclass. But if I was Bellingham I´d be really upset at my coach now and Ißd demand answers from him and the FA asap.

 

Unfortunately that game was reminiscent Southgate in-game management at its worst. Score one goal and then try to bunker down from very early in the match against a quality team. Spain would never and didn't against France. We needed to bring in central midfielders who could control the game but Tuchel didn't even bring those kind of players.

 

He won't change anything. It'll be an exact repeat, the same weird squad selections will persist.

If it wasn't him i'd say we have two main things on the two do list:

1) Move on from Pickford. He's been great. He makes some very good saves and did again tonight. But he is so ridiculously bad on the ball nowadays he continually puts us under pressure against anyone who presses him even slightly. It is astounding how bad he is on the ball. Also claims absolutely no crosses which means teams can swing crosses into our six yard box and get a lot of joy.

2) Put together a coherent back 4 and gel them together. Every game this tournament our back 4 changed one game to another. You need a settled back 4.

 

No point hiding it. There’s a problem between Tuchel and the players. Basically blaming them for falling back, and saying he had no option but to go defensive to fill the gaps. He may be right. But I think it’s going to become an issue.

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) July 15, 2026

 

Yes. Dan Hodges is the go to journalist for football

 

I think Pickford will retire form internationals relatively soon and then it surely be Trafford with Rushworth also in the squad. But of course we don’t have great depth there and one or two injures will see championship players have to come into contention.

 

Can't say I'm devastated but I am. I just knew this would happen. Not taking ball retaining midfielders like Wharton and Scott was a huge mistake. Even Lewis-skelly would have done a job in midfield. Taking off Gordon for konsa was the biggest ******** up of all. Changing his formation to wingbacks even though he'd never used that before. Not bringing on saka when we needed ab outlet. Bringing half fit players and not having suitable replacements. This tournament has been a total clusterfuvk

 

Not for me. Can't stand club football. No football till the next euros for me because I refuse to watch England under tuchel

 

Every man and his dog could see this was a moment for Watkins. Even Southgate brought on Watkins I'm the euros semi finals and it worked

 

I think us fans make the mistake of thinking it's always the coaches strategy. I don't think he got a message on the pitch of park the bus and don't try and go for the killer 2nd goal. I see this all the time with teams, they score and then they try and organize defensively. I don't know whether or not Tuchal is a great coach or not but I think we don't enough blame on the players for being cowardly and shifting into safe defensive positions.

 

Tuchel took off Gordon for a defender and then brought on more defenders.

 

I honestly think Tuchel made these changes for self glory. He wanted to show what a brilliant tactical defensive genius he is. He got away with it against Norway and Mexico

 

Rendered a little less persuasive by the fact that everyone and his dog was loudly declaiming Tuchel's defensive subs BEFORE Argentina scored, and predicting that it would lead to exactly what it led to. There's something wrong when everyone can see the glaring issue with a tactical approach except for the one guy whose job it is.

As other have said, it's not being knocked out per se that's so aggravating. If we'd given ourselves the best possible chance and Argentina had simply been better than us then I'd be disappointed but I'd swallow it, but handing it to them like that is just... I don't know. Incomprehensible. Tuchel almost threw the lead against Norway by doing the exact same thing when we were well on top in extra time, but we just about clung on. Then he does it again against Argentina, lining everyone up on the edge of the box so that players like Messi and De Paul can swing in 900 crosses in a row and see if one of them lands on an Argentine head? They'd literally had one shot on target all game prior to that. It's insane - I don't know what else to say.

 

I don’t disagree.

 

Players do naturally defend a lead but there's only one person to blame for a situation England were left with 6 defenders, zero wingers on the pitch. Which he still didn't change even after conceding. I genuinely don't know how that formation was meant to keep the ball. Zero width, zero pace, zero outlets. Bellingham was getting the ball and trying to have to dribble it alone from his own half because we had no other players in support of him.

There's also only one person to blame for the fact the sole actual central midfielder subbed on all tournament was a 6 minute Jordon Henderson cameo meaning the team all tournament has needed weird adjustments to get round Tuchel deciding he didn't need any other central midfielders. Maybe if England had a actual central midfielder to bring on for a clearly not match fit Rice when he's flagging we get more of a foothold in the middle rather than bringing on another defender?