FIFA World Cup 2026 Results & Discussion Thread [R]

I take it you cleaned it?

 

Not quite sure what you mean but ironically only BCN people are anti Spain.

Madrileños are 100% behind Spain.

 

Tuchel blaming the players. Man what a fraud

 

Do you genuinely have reading comprehension problems? How many times do I have to reiterate that the discussion was whether a corrupt referee and VAR team could have called that a handball.

 

Hilarious how the English were heaping praise on Tuchel, then his team lose one match in the dying moments to Lionel Messi and the World Cup defending champions, and suddenly he is a complete moron.

 

It was the manner in which they lost

 

There's always a reason. If they had held on, he's a genius. He went in emphasizing defense, not free-flowing attacking football. He didn't even put Trent on the squad.

 

But again, as I'd mentioned upthread, that isn't what happened, is it?

I don't deal in hypotheticals on this, nor do I live to complain about corruption. But you do you.

 

I'm not sure the "heaping praise" was warranted, frankly, after the bizarre squad selection that left England short on skilled, attack-minded players. He deserves credit for enabling key players (Kane, Bellingham, Gordon and 1 or 2 others) to reach their full potential, and for the tactics in the match against Croatia, but not a ton of praise.

 

Then why on earth did you respond in the first place? Oh right, the reading comprehension problems.

 

I wanted to enjoy a true madridista conspiracy theory that had zero basis in reality.

 

Bet they would've criticised him if they held on too. It was cowardly tactics only befitting of a small team which England are not. He had already started with controversy when he went out of his way to not call up Trent. Called up a bunch of injured and injury prone players. He had to play a CB on the rifht when they were chasing a goal. Trust me what they are doing is very mild compared to the reaction he deserves.

 

had a couple with excellent set pieces I think

but yes mostly injured

 

You still dont call up CBs just to avoid calling him up. Trent has plenty of high profile game experience. Petty by the coach not to call him up and I am not saying it because he is a RM player.

 

It was a completely even game until England got the goal. The idea that Argentina are on a different level to England is ridiculous.

The Argentinians fouled and stop-started their way to parity with England until Tuchel changed the formation after going ahead. After that, they were the far better team.

Spain changed absolutely nothing when going ahead against France, and they got their second goal. England should have tried the same thing, aside from bringing on a bit of pace on the counter.

Argentina would have thrown the kitchen sink at England in the last minutes and maybe got a goal, maybe conceded one. But that would have been better than conceding the initiative totally by bringing on defenders and changing the shape, then being unable to make any changes to find a goal when you go behind.

Tuchel is often misrepresented and I haven’t seen the comments he made, but the above is true regardless of what he said.

 

OK, but then the players on the pitch also allowed themselves to only hold 12% possession after Gordon's goal. I don't put that down to the formation, so much as [mostly] Pickford punting the ball long on every goal kick and restart, rather than trying [on occasion] to build a little possession out of the back.

England were ceding possession after one long, searching ball after another by Pickford [and others], rather than trying to at least keep the ball for a few passes before having to clear it. And given that Argentina have a 39 year old who can't get around the pitch much to press, I don't know why England couldn't have had, I dunno, 30-40% possession after the goal? Was that too much to ask?


And again, I agree that Tuchel did crap the bed with his subs, but then the players also crapped the bed by being too cowardly to try to keep the ball, and by them dropping all the way onto Pickford's toes.

 

Was Pickford playing short before the goal, or was he kicking it long to the winger then as well?

The team played cowardly because the instructions (signals) from the bench were “let’s play like cowards”. I guarantee that if the first sub was Rice off, Rashford on, that 12% possession stat immediately disappears.

 

Jude Bellingham today. 🍴🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/IqWsGAe4HY

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) July 17, 2026

The lads

 

Playing Mexico in Mexico is not an easy task

 

I incredibly doubt that, though it's a counterfactual that we'll never know.

He took Livramento, who played less matches than Trent, and Quansah, who played more at CB. Seemed pretty clear the choice was about type of RB, not form or how many matches he played.

 

Tuchel was useless. An absolute fraud.

He picked the squad
He picked the team
Then threw everyone under the bus

Like i said, a shit Southgate. In fact, he’s worse. The changes he made, made them worse.

The way he went in on Southgate when he joined and did the same thing. Pathetic excuse of a manger.