Let them look at their own market first...

Manos Staramopoulos • 17 de julio de 2026

The comparison with the past is immediate, because at the base there is a widespread view in England: Thomas Tuchel should have changed the mentality. Embracing, in effect, a less speculative idea of football than that of his predecessor Gareth Southgate.

The comparison with the past is immediate, because at the base there is a widespread view in England: Thomas Tuchel should have changed the mentality of the national team, making it more aggressive. Embracing, in effect, a less speculative idea of football than that of his predecessor Gareth Southgate. The most detailed analysis is provided by Jamie Carragher in The Telegraph columns. “With Tuchel, a romantic vision was spread that things would have gone differently on certain nights if England had had a more decisive, more active manager, with the ability to read the game so that he could make every important decision correctly. This has proven to be a simplistic view of football when you are in the knockout stages at the highest level. In these situations, there is always an element of gambling, especially when the game is in the balance and you rely on the bench or you think the tactical set-up of the team needs a radical change. When the result is from inside or outside, the crisis turns you into a saint or a sinner. That is the brutality of football. Croatia, Italy, France and Spain were all superior to England in the Southgate years. Yesterday was even worse from a coaching point of view, because England were superior to Argentina for 72 minutes.”

🚨 Questions are growing inside the England camp over Thomas Tuchel’s decision-making during the second-half collapse against Argentina.

Several players were confused by the early defensive changes and the instructions coming from the touchline. The lack of rotation has also… pic.twitter.com/f8hYyM0WIf
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) July 17, 2026

Like 2021

This defeat brought Gary Neville back to 2021. “It was a lot like the European Championship final with Italy. It is about the mentality and the confidence for England and a little bit of quality in maintaining possession. I can’t believe how many times I have seen that.” Gary Lineker's criticisms start with a question about the future and end with irony.

"Is he the right man to take us forward? I never ask for anyone to be sacked, but it depends on him and what the Federation thinks about it. Are we satisfied that we have reached the semi-finals? For me, the game plan made no sense. Tactically it was worrying, to be honest. It was a series of wrong moves. We were all there watching the same game and saying the same thing. I found Messi's management absolutely unthinkable, you are playing against the best footballer of all time. You have to stay on top of him, on the contrary he was free to pass balls into the penalty area all the time. I will start by saying that I am joking, but I wonder if Thomas Tuchel is not a German spy. "I think that Germany, since they are not very strong at the moment and have not managed to get past the group stage, sent someone to sabotage us."

Wayne Rooney has no doubt: the fault lies entirely with the manager. "His decisions cost us dearly. If you're an attacking player and then you see changes like that after taking the lead, you lose your confidence. You can't think of getting away with it indefinitely. You start to think it won't be good if you stay so passive. He panicked, he gave up every chance to go for a double. If you allow Argentina, who are so full of quality, to always be around the penalty area, sooner or later they're going to score. They're the world champions. I'm devastated." Michael Owen also didn't hide his disappointment, showing the example he should follow. "Look at Spain who took a 1-0 lead against France. That's courage. That's audacity. "And then look at England when they were 1-0 up. What's the difference? We're a better team than Argentina, I have no doubt about it. But in the end we deserved to lose. In fact, we could have finished 4-1. Bringing on three defenders when we were 1-0 up, what message does that send?"