FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

This stat is not on Tuchel. It is on the players.

 

If Wendigo is saying this then it's really bad

 

For all we know if England scored first against France we probably would've bunkered down too. FWIW, I loved how they fought and created chances throughout that game. I was proud too.

 

Just woke up this morning after struggling to get some sleep after the game last night and I’m still just as furious! What makes it worse was whilst we were watching my 10 year old was asking me why are we just putting on defender after defender? If he can see this is a big problem then I’m not sure how someone being paid 6 million a year couldn’t see any issues with this! It just blows my mind and how Mark Bullingham can support this style of play doesn’t bold well for the future, same thing will happen again as Tuchel won’t change!

 

The players certainly do deserve their own blame for losing composure but we did also have 5 subs to turn things around. This stat is damning on the players (it also doesn't seem to be true from the pass map I can see), but its also damning that with this happening, Tuchel's solution wasn't to try and adjust things to get us on the ball more or maintain some kind of counter threat, but simply to accept the situation and make the side even more defensive which just made the situation worse as Argentina pinned us back knowing we had zero on the pitch to counter them.

If legs were gone we had 5 subs to bring on to inject energy back into the side. If the occasion got to players, we could have bought on more technically minded players (had we not left a lot of them at home anyway).

The hydration break should have been an opportunity for Tuchel to calm down the players and adjustments to address the issues but instead he took off Gordon for Konsa and went to a wingerless 5-4-1 with zero pace left in the attack. The going wingerless by the way, also a huge reason we struggled because the instruction to play narrow left them freely able to swing in crosses constantly. If at the hydration break he'd made some changes to make us a counter-threat and it failed you could at least say fair enough, but we actually got worse defensively for his change.

 

This is ALL on tuchel. He's ********ed us over 100 percent. I'm still fuming at that pathetic surrender

 

As people rightly pointed out, Tuchel picked a weird squad. No Trent, Palmer, Gibbs White, Hall, Wharton. Takes Henderson which was a complete waste of time. Takes three strikers and two of them saw a grand total of six minutes, complete waste of time. He took Mainoo as one of his midfield options and didn't give him a single minute, which begs the question why didn't he leave Henderson and Mainoo behind and take Wharton and Alex Scott. We needed some press resitant midfielders in there and those two would have helped enormously in a game like yesterday.

His tactic yesterday once we scored was to sit back and play on the counter, but why the ******** did he do it without any pace on the field? He took off Gordon, our only quick player, and failed to bring on Rashford or Watkins who would have stretched the Argentina defence at least and given us an outball. He didn't bother bringing Saka on who has that little bit of quality in the final third. Just ********ing ridiculous decision making.

How can a manager that has won a Champions League with Chelsea be such an amateur? We were never going to hold out against Argentina's attack for 30+ minutes, they have Messi, Alvarez and Martinez, three world class attackers, it worked against Mexico because their star attackers are Quinones and Jimenez, it wouldn't work against top attackers. If we scored at 80+ minutes I could probably just about understand it, but we didn't. And once again our decision to play defensive costs us, just llke it did under Southgate.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised and I didn't think we were gonna win yesterday. England's last and only world cup final was 60 years ago. Argentina have made five since that time and won three of them. The fact we were favourites to win was just baffling and certainly not based on historical achievements.

 

Yes, stick prime Xavi on in that last 30 minutes for England, and he's not dominating either. Rice and Anderson had no outlets to even pass to at that point. We were done when Gordon was subbed off.

Our system just collapsed in on itself.

 

Betting odds wouldn't be based on historical achievements.

 

Thanks for that amazing insight.

 

Just seeing the Fernandez goal again also, not really a mistake from Pickford but one of those you feel a top keeper gets it. No power in the shot and not in the corner. He did also make a couple of really good saves to be fair to him.

Regardless I do think its time to move him on - his kicking against literally anyone nowadays is atrocious. Even very basic passes seem to be an ordeal with him. He also never catches anything coming into the box. Which for a team who's tactic for the next tournament will presumably be all out defence on leads again, is also a big problem.

He's been a great servant but the last two tournaments he's really been a pretty big limitation on the side. Great reflex saves, and he should be fondly remembered but we need more.

 

I'm a massive Harry kane fan but maybe we need to move slightly away from him now

 

I said yesterday it's Time to bring in Trafford. He probably would have saved that

 

I think it was a big error, every Championship keeper would save it. Not that powerful and not in the top or side corner. It's one of those shots that keepers push out routinely. Pickford was poorly positioned but still should've saved it.

 

Lewis-skelly would have been ideal for this midfield. He's very press resistant

 

The problem with Kane is we never adapt a horses for courses approach with him. He's a great striker but he's also useless in a game like yesterday where you are pinned in your half. Instead we insist on keeping him out on the pitch regardless, even when his fitness is clearly struggling.

As a centre back no one is watching Kane in that situation thinking "I need to keep an eye on him". Watkins is nowhere near his class but you'd at least be thinking "oh hang on, we need to be careful here". He'd also press much more relentlessly than Kane who did a pretty awful job of it that last 30 minutes.

 

Mainoo is press resistant but Tuchel doesn't like what he's seen in camp at the World Cup it seems?

 

Think I'll stay off social media for a while. Full of dickheads gloating

 

My ideas going forward. Keep tuchel unless pep or a klopp becomes available

look at phasing out Kane and potentially using Cole palmer as a 9 as he can do a bit of what Kane does deep and is a good finisher. He’s not a rw

lock into a system and play that was from the young age groups up. Ideally a 433 or 4231

play controlling cms more and trust them to see out games and control them

bring multiple players for each position in specific systems who can fill in for inevitably unfit and injured players

a
We also need to train keepers to become ball players

 

One question I'd like put to Tuchel is what his expectations of the team are in terms of physical output.

He and Anthony Barry are constantly talking about "Premier League intensity" and playing with speed but I think they're completely unrealistic in terms of what they expect the players can deliver in a condensed tournament at the end of a gruelling season.

I said all along I thought Tuchel's squad selections suggested he thought he could just play certain players every single minute of every game and it'd be fine. I don't think you'd take such measley midfield depth if you cared about managing players' fatigue levels.

 

I think we need to rip up the whole youth system in England and start to produce better midfield controlling players. We have some decent ones in Scott and Wharton but not enough. We also need to find a forward that can press defenders back like mbappe's someone who can go over the top. Kane is useless when it comes to teams stifling the pitch

 

If he starts pickford on Saturday I'll scream. Nothing against pickford but now is the chance to throw Trafford in against a top team

 

Are you going to watch it? I don't think I can be bothered. I also think we have zero chance as France have had an extra day to get over their match and the disappointment.

 

I think in retrospect you can argue that the reactions to the win at the Azteca spoke to an understanding of bravery in our culture that's potentially problematic in these scenarios.

I remember reading a quote from Michael Owen after that game where he said he didn't think the players were brave and that true bravery is demanding the ball in extremely difficult situations and being willing to make mistakes.

Was the praise from that win, and the way it was achieved, excessive? Would other countries have reacted in the same way? Ultimately I don't know but there might be something in that.

 

Not sure. I'm definitely not watching the final. I feel too down to make a decision right now