FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

France can come back from their disappointment because they have the players to reach plenty more finals. We don't. We'll NEVER get this opportunity again

 

Utterly deflated this morning. Haven’t really enjoyed the tournament at all. We’ve only put in a good second half in against Croatia and then a battling performance against Mexico. The rest has been a struggle.

Going off last night we were never going to win the whole thing but it was our best chance to get to a final in 60 years! Will Germany be better under Klopp in 4 years time? Probably Will Portugal fare better without Ronaldo? Likely. Will Brazil be better in 4 years? Will the middle tier teams get better?

We’ll never do anything in a tournament until we start trusting midfielders who have composure on the ball in pressure situations. I’m 100% certain that Tuchel is not the man to take us forward but can’t see him going anywhere until 2028 unfortunately.

 

Maybe the build up to that match made it into something it wasn't. All they talked about was the altitude, the Mexican home record (mostly against poor teams) and even the heat - which wasn't that hot. The praise was in response to that. Also, it was whilst down to 10 men. Most important it worked. Definitely it would have been better if we had held onto the ball more. We did score whilst down to 10 too. Extending the lead with a man down was impressive.

A lot of the praise was because it was a dramatic match.

 

That is over dramatic. We don't know the future.

 

we had Mainoo on the bench, he had a very solid euros, played brilliantly in the semi finals vs Holland, he's an expert at keeping possession under pressure. Why did Tuchel even take him ?

 

I think games in tournaments are very marginal, if Pickford had made that save from Enzo we may well have seen the game out. Enzo had resorted to pot shots at that point which usually you're happy with but Pickford fluffed it. The problem with Tuchel's subs was once that goal went in we had no way of getting out.

 

It's interesting to see the Norway stats to see much this was always part of the plan. Against Norway we had 19.4% possession second half of extra time after bringing on Burn and going 5 at the back to see out the last 10 + extra time. 50% pass success rate. Against Argentina after his sub of Konsa for Gordon at the hydration break, till the goal we had 6.2% possession!

In the Norway game, before that sub and formation change, through extra time we'd had 42.8% possession with a 87% pass success rate. Clearly this is a top down issue.

This is clearly just Tuchel's plan of defending leads in knock out football. He just attempted the same against a better team who punished him for trying it. It's the exact same playbook. It's one of the reasons its pointless keeping him - this is the masterplan.

 

This is undeniably part of it. I've said a few times that I don't think Rice and Bellingham are a complimentary pairing in midfield.

If Argentina can play both Enzo Fernandez and Mac Allister in a midfield three and get to two World Cup finals then I don't see why we can't play someone like Curtis Jones, or even a Tyler Morton.

Ultimately a big part of defending is what you do with the ball and of the four semi-finalists, we were the worst team at defending with the ball by quite a distance.

 

They wouldn't be getting very far if they didn't have Messi.

 

We were down to 10 against Mexico, I think that game is fair enough. It was a good win.

Last night was just self inflicted. A total waste of an opportunity. Yes I think Spain beat us if we make the final, but you have a chance if you keep making finals

 

I'll say it again, our record against top teams in WC KO matches is AWFUL. Until we win won we won't win anything. Despite our progress we still can't push through and win one.

 

I think after the Mexico game he thought the spirit of that second half was the thing that would carry us through the tournament. I hope that it wasn't always his plan to defend leads like that, although his selections may hint that it was.

 

With the substitutions he made at 1-1,had we have got to extra time we would have been bummed 4-1 or 5-1 in ET. As you say, we were left with no pace or outlet up front.

 

Well they did beat Brazil 4-1 in qualifying without Messi so I doubt they'd be duds.

You can also argue Messi makes them more defensively vulnerable because they essentially play with 10 players OOP. Despite this I think any neutral watching last night would argue they're a better defensive team than we are.

Even take Messi out of the equation and we couldn't create very much against them at all despite the fact we were playing against a midfield pairing that are considered defensively suspect at Premier League level on an individual basis.

Ultimately defending is a collective effort that's largely based on structure and pressing. Quality on the ball can't be faked via a system. We often sacrifice too much of the latter in pursuit of defensive solidity, which we didn't even get at this tournament because it's a collective endeavour that the manager failed to cultivate.

 

The fact that it was marginal is what makes it tough to take. We could have won that.

It was a good shot but saveable. There had been other long shots that were near misses. The thing with that shot was that he had so much time to hit it. Bellingham closed down at speed but Enzo was far too close to have that much space. If we were 5 yards up the pitch and that shot is from 5 yards further out it is not a defensive error but from that range it is.

I think we were tired and when part of the defence is tired you end up dropping too far back as you can only hold the line as well as the most tired defender. We also failed to get out wide for the repeated Messi short corners, which gave him so much time to cross from very dangerous positions. Showed a lack of energy.

We would have been so much better off with wingers or Watkins who could run the ball out of defence or provide an outlet for long clearances. Just forcing Argentina to leave men on the halfway line or risk a lethal counter would have given us more of a chance.

We had one moment at 1-0 when we broke clear and Rodgers ended up shooting into the covering defender. We needed more of that just with better finishing.

 

What happened to the Croatia game where he said we'd go out with a fight and lose our way? We didn't see that at all after that. The Croatia game was so refreshing because we just went for it after the break.

 

We should definitely rotate him a bit. In a game like last night when it's backs to the wall, he's not really an asset because he has no pace, even if he gets hold of the ball.

 

I'd rather watch the carpet fade. Pointless game that no one wants to be involved in. I doubt I'll watch the final either. Certainly not going out of my way to watch it.

 

Fatigue. We didn't see that level of physical intensity (particularly not in the second half) once after that game.

It's why these questions regarding basing the team around physicality and intensity need to be posed to Tuchel.

How realistic is it to try and maintain that throughout an end of season tournament where you have to play 8 high stakes games in five weeks?

I think Tuchel is a bit deluded about this in all honesty. He kept talking about the intensity in the second half of games being off and I'm thinking "can't you see the players are completely spent?".

 

Mbappe might play the whole match to try and get the golden boot. The golden boot has been won in the third place match before.

 

Watkins would have been ideal fir this game but Tuchel gave him 10 minutes the whole tournament

 

Would Trafford have got it. That’s the best alternative. No point talking about if Courtois or Allison would have got it.

 

I think going by the squad numbers Dean Henderson is more likely to start.

 

The more I've been thinking about it the more I think that fatigue was the big problem for us. We went into that match after 120 minutes in Miami humidity and playing with 10 men at altitude. It isn't surprising we were knackered. Putting all the fresh legs on at the back just exacerbated the lack of movement further forward. Argentina made changes in attacking positions and it transformed them.

We should also think about this for the Euros. As this summer has shown it can be very hot and sticky in the south. We should play most of our matches in the north. No doubt we will kick off at Wembley but we shouldn't go back there until the semi final. Play the lowest seed in the opener and then go to Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool until the semis. Much better playing conditions in the summer. Try and put all our rivals in London and Birmingham. No doubt the weather won't play ball if we plan for it but it is good to go across the country anyway.

 

The media will be brutal tomorrow at the third place press conference. The blame is firmly on his shoulders and the FA rushing out their support for him hasn’t gone down that well. The NYT sent a news alert for an Athletic article blaming him. They didn’t even do that after the USA went out.