FIFA World Cup 2026: England Tournament Thread [R]

Was actually saying this today to a guy at work about all the chopping and changing with moving players about which in hindsight really wasn’t a good idea but I think many of us could see this problem when he selected the squad. Moving Spence from right back to left back, James into midfield, dropping Jude back into midfield, Konsa from centre back to right back and I’m sure there’s more changes. This really can’t help the fluidity of the team when you change that much. As much as we criticised Southgate, I don’t remember that much chopping and changing other than probably trying Trent in midfield. If he gets another tournament then surely he will have learnt from this and picks more specialist rather than more centre backs who can play right back for example.

 

Thomas Tuchel urges England players to finish World Cup strongly in passionate training ground address. England can finish third with victory over France in bronze medal clash in Miami - would be best finish since 1966. https://t.co/IHPTii4nEC

— Sami Mokbel (@SamiMokbel_BBC) July 17, 2026

Press conference not till 0.30.

 

Remind me to miss it

 

Either way Norway played 3 midfielders that had proper roles while England played three 8s and then took one 8 off and threw on Eze who is a half 10 half winger. If you had to play that game 10 times within 90m I would rather be Norway. Even though as a club manager if I could have only one player between both midfield's Jude/Rice/Anderson would be would be 1 2 and 3.

You can still counter attack and have midfielders that complete more passes than that and also protect the back line. It's not just about the offence it's the defence too three number 8s leave the midfield exposed in both directions. England were fortunate not to concede 3 goals to Norway within 90m while their goal came off a goal kick.

 

My major reason for wanting Tuchel gone is precisely because he is absolutely the opposite of someone who will learn from this experience because he will never put blame on himself. I mean the midfield issue from this squad is not a new thing for example, his midfield selections have been negligent and bizarre pretty much his entire time as manager but he never really learns from it. It was a common issue that our midfield would fall apart whenever he made subs. We even ended up with Henderson - Loftus Cheek as 6's in one match.

 

what literally happened broken down step by step no bias no emotion.
excellent tactical breakdown.

 

Yeah I mean if he hasn’t learned from this then we are in a whole load of trouble come the Euros. If he picks another squad with the intention of moving James into midfield at the expense of Adam Wharton then he needs sacking on the spot!

 

I’m waiting for the return of Mason Mount. Honestly can see it happening at some point before the Euros.

 

I really don't like the fixation on what happened in the second half against Argentina, because it assumes this only became obvious on Wednesday. To me, this always looked like something that was bound to happen as soon as England faced an elite side in the knockout stages. It's written into our history.

So as much as I've had disliked Tuchel from the beginning, this sudden u-turn in opinion after one match is worrying me in its own right, because apart from Southgates 2nd cycle, this has been my whole life (watching England).

Edit: it also assumes England would not have conceded had Tuchel had not made the changes. I dont think thats true. We were sitting more and more in a low block and increasingly inviting pressure from Argentina before the subs. We just went too negative and almost surrendered without a fight when he made the changes

 

It came against the run of play it was a bit of a fluke situation. You don't expect to kick the ball it fall to Rice he makes one pass and Jude is running into the box one on one. Take nothing away from Jude but it was not a build up play or a clever counter attack it was a goal off a goal kick. Fair play but that's not duplicable.

The goal that was disallowed is relevant because the push was foolish and a clear foul but did not impact the goal. The England defence and unbalanced midfield conceded 2 goals to Norway and got away with Norway walking through the midfield and smashing the bar point blank.

Norways midfield completed far more passes and created far more danger. Possession is not how you win games but Norways midfield is not Spain or Argentina it should be closer even if the idea is to counter attack.

This is not to suggest England were lucky they were not they found their goal and had more depth quality for extra time and won. The point is that Norway were too much for their midfield. Argentina Spain were always going to be a bridge too far.

If they balance the midfield they can beat anyone. Carrick should have played in 2006. It's the same thing we have seen over and over again. England are a victim of the fact that they maybe produce the best box to box 8s in world football.

Anyway I thought we all hated Tuchel's tactics? Were they good against Norway? The bar I was watching in every England fan was holding their hats because Norway was threatening so much.
They can do much better than that. I don't blame the quality of the players they are just out there on an island for me.

 

10000000%

but this video does through the17minutes before the substitutions.
two things happened Englands players retreated and could not handles Argentinas adjustments once they went for a high press possession notable Rice who we see Stones literally pushing to stop collapsing on him and then Tuchel made it worse.

 

Mainoo must have thought he was being managed by Amorim all over again. Bizarre as he's one of the players who doesn't treat the ball like a hot potato.

 

“And it will happen again.” 😬

Gary called it on our World Cup preview show on England not being able to cope against possession teams in the knockout stages... 👀 pic.twitter.com/GXUySkliD8

— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) July 17, 2026

This is spot on.

 

We barely put a decent corner in all tournament either. Rice hit practically every corner bang on the money when he had an Arsenal shirt on.

 

I am hearing you but one thing is troubling me here . England had 18 ( of their 30 total ) box clearances come in those final 20 minutes . That's an average box clearance of one about every 60 seconds more or less . No team , no matter how compact , can survive that onslaught. I don't know why Tuchel would surrender so much ground in the midfield with that much time left whilst only up 1 - 0 and believe he would or could survive that . Its damn near suicide. I guess he thought he had the height with his defense in the box but what about the cannon fire coming from just outside?

Fernandez had all the time in the world to bomb away and recalibrate his accuracy. Eventually he landed a salvo direct hit.

 

Exactly. He said: "After 5-6 matches, the engine goes and the petrol runs out". And yes, sometime in the second half in the 7th game. Exactly that happend. As it always does with England. But, hey lets keep doing that. Or maybe, our coach should be expected to look at ways to avoid it. With playing style, rotation. Something. Just not run into the same exact thing tournament after tournament.

 

I realise I'm purely ranting at this point but England tournament postmortems in the media are beyond tedious. Nothing but surface level knee jerk reactions that fail to connect the dots of what's going on.

You can tell 95% of the media and public pay virtually no attention to the team outside of tournaments and absolutely no attention to the overall England setup outside of the senior squad.

The claim about "DNA" stopping England being able to keep the ball at tournaments is such unserious analysis it's what I'd expect the year 11s to be talking about at school, not the mainstream media and our own manager (which alone tells you everything you need to know about the likelihood of him fixing this down the line).

What we're hearing now is comparable to taking Jarrod Bowen, Jacob Murphy and Jack Harrison to the World Cup, leaving Gordon, Madueke and Rashford at home, then, when we inevitably lack pace and directness, asking why it isn't there and if it's down to a DNA or culture issue - pretending as though options with those qualities don't exist.

We can talk about Tuchel not understanding our player pool (100% true) but half the country doesn't either. Nobody ever questioned Eze or Rogers' fit as midfielders before the tournament. Whether or not Mainoo was fit for what was being asked. Whether or not our first choice options might fatigue with the demands and lack of depth.

At risk of banging on about Carsley, understanding players is his biggest strength. Barring blind spots with one or two players he has such a gift for understanding our players and who they are at their core, and then platforming them accordingly.

I listened to a podcast recently where he talked about how you need a deep understanding of your players as individual people and who they are as personalities to understand them as players. I cannot for the life of me imagine Tuchel taking a holistic approach like that.

 

Eze only played as a 10 until James came on, and then he moved wide. James played in central midfield until Rogers came on, and then he went to right-back. Then (for whatever reason) Tuchel decided to play the last 20 minutes of extra time with only two players in any kind of central midfield role. I don't know how you're supposed to draw any conclusions by comparing that to three Norwegian midfielders who each played 120+ minutes in a 4-3-3.

If you want to compare like with like, here are the basic passing figures while England's starting midfielders were all on the pitch:

England
Anderson: 49
Rice: 47
Bellingham: 26

Norway
Berge: 29
Odegaard: 28
Berg: 14

How are you squaring that with your point above? Looks to me less like a dysfunctional starting midfield, and much more like a total lack of suitable replacements when one of them has to go off, which is what we've all been saying all along. And that's if you can draw any meaningful conclusions at all from such a crude stat, which I honestly doubt.

 

I think there is going to have be some hard questions asked about our midfield, Whether Anderson and Rice are to simlar and its one or other of them of them. We need to try different combos of midfielders. We've got a fair selection to pick from. Btw be interesting to see how Palmer and Foden get on this season with new managers and a summer off.

 

Stars and swipes. Now the President of the United States of America Donald Trump critiques Thomas Tuchel's tactics against Argentina. “You have a great player in England who I played golf with. Harry (Kane). I think they perhaps made a mistake when they made him a defensive…

— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) July 17, 2026

Trump criticising Tuchel’s tactics wasn’t on my bingo card.

"I think this story will rumble on" 👀@SamiMokbel_BBC says Tuchel's in-game instructions against Argentina didn't go down well with senior members of the England squad 🗣️#BBCFootball #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/TbbYsr0NvX

— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) July 17, 2026

 

In Miami where Thomas Tuchel and John Stones are due to speak in 30 minutes, although the press conference has already been pushed back due to bad weather affecting England’s travel. pic.twitter.com/BBoz7Bdzkt

— James Olley (@JamesOlley) July 17, 2026