Thomas Tuchel was supposed to be the man who would turn water into wine. That was what the Football Association told us. That was the rationale for turning its back on the work that Gareth Southgate had done with the England team and paying big money for a quick-fix super-coach who would win the World Cup.
When Southgate left after the 2024 European Championship, the FA chose not to build on what he achieved. They did not have the courage to do what the Spanish Football Federation did when they promoted Luis de la Fuente, a successful coach of its youth teams, to the senior job when Luis Enrique left after the 2022 World Cup.
Lee Carsley had won the European Under-21 Championship with England – and won it again last year – but was deemed not good enough by the FA, who abandoned their principles of a coaching pathway for English talent by appointing a foreign manager.
The rationale for deviating from a path that had brought significant steps forward in the evolution of the England team – England reached the final of the European Championship in 2021 and 2024 and the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018 – was that England needed a coach of Tuchel’s proven talent at club level to take them over the final step.
It was a high-stakes gamble and on Wednesday night, that gamble failed. When England lost to Argentina in the Atlanta Stadium, blowing a 1-0 lead, the tactical sophistication that Tuchel had promised was replaced with neanderthal football.
England invited wave after wave of Argentina attacks. They gave Lionel Messi, the greatest player the world has ever seen, time and space. They seemed surprised when Messi laid on two goals in seven minutes in the dying stages of the game.
Thomas Tuchel was supposed to be the man who would turn water into wine. But he couldn’t live up to that reputation
Not only did England lose to Argentina, but they lost playing neanderthal football
‘I found it absolutely unfathomable,’ former England striker Gary Lineker said after the match, ‘that, if your tactic is to sit everyone deep, you do that against the greatest player ever to play football.’
From Anthony Gordon’s goal in the 55th minute until the Lautaro Martinez winner in the 92nd minute, England had just 12 per cent possession. Twelve per cent. Let that sink in. It felt as if England were playing with 10 men. Or nine men. And for all his attempts at excuses about sloppy technique and different football cultures, that was on Tuchel. That was squarely on Tuchel.
What really hurts is this: the single most obvious truth from Wednesday night is that Tuchel was outcoached by Lionel Scaloni. Comprehensively outcoached. Scaloni’s substitutions were positive and proactive for a start. Tuchel’s were overwhelmingly negative and cautious. They handed the momentum to an Argentina team that was there for the taking.
Scaloni, another coach, like De la Fuente, promoted from his country’s youth system, spoke after the game about the period following England’s goal, when England should have pressed home their advantage but instead, led by Tuchel’s negative substitutions, played as if they were scared of victory.
He and his players sensed Tuchel’s hesitation. They sensed his uncertainty. They sensed his lack of faith in his players’ technical ability. ‘There was blood in the water,’ Scaloni said, ‘and we went for it.’ Blood in the water? England had just gone 1-0 up and there was blood in the water. What an indictment of Tuchel’s coaching that is.
And if there is seething anger among England fans at falling one hurdle short of a first World Cup final for 60 years, it is because they have seen this movie before. We have all seen this movie before. England always find a way to lose the big games at major tournaments. We were told it would be different this time because of Tuchel. But it wasn’t different. It was almost exactly the same. If anything, it was worse.
Tuchel’s uncertainty and lack of faith in his players invited Argentina to go for the jugular
Once again, England took the lead in a big game, and once again they blew it. That’s on Tuchel
That is one of the reasons why there is so much disillusion with the manner of England’s capitulation. It fits a pattern: England have often led in the match in which they are eventually knocked out. It was the case in 1996 against Germany, 1998 against Argentina, 2002 against Brazil, 2004 against Portugal, 2016 against Iceland, 2018 against Croatia and 2021 against Italy. It is a cruel way to lose. Now, it has happened again.
Tuchel did his best to avoid the blame in Atlanta. He blamed almost everything else instead. Without naming individuals, he had criticised his players for ‘sloppy’ technical mistakes after the fortunate win over Norway in the quarter-finals and he hinted at similar issues after the semi-final defeat.
But England’s World Cup failure was on him. Not the players. If anything, the players bailed him out at this tournament. Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane bailed him out. It doesn’t wash for Tuchel to start criticising his players’ technical abilities. He knew their abilities when he signed on to win the World Cup.
And, by the way, the England player with the best technique, a player who can change games with his awareness and his ability, is Cole Palmer. And Tuchel didn’t even include Palmer in his squad.
Tuchel did not turn water into wine. He turned it into vinegar. He led England to the semi-finals of the World Cup but his part in the capitulation to Argentina has soured everything. England were in sight of their first World Cup final for 60 years but instead of helping them to the line, Tuchel brought them to their knees.
The FA will not sack Tuchel because they have just given him a two-year extension to his contract but the manner of England’s exit from the World Cup and the disillusion it has spread means that they are stuck with a lame-duck manager to lead them into a home Euros in 2028.
Tuchel’s substitution of Anthony Gordon for Ezri Konsa will go down in infamy
Tuchel’s history suggests that when things start to go south for him in a job, they go south very quickly. The worry for the FA, and for England fans, is that Wednesday’s semi-final defeat will be the prelude to a period when the coach’s relationship with them and his players goes downhill fast.
Whatever happens, he will be remembered as the coach who took off Anthony Gordon and replaced him with Ezri Konsa in the 72nd minute.
As substitutions go, it will stand there in infamy alongside Sir Alf Ramsey’s decision to take off Bobby Charlton when England led West Germany in the quarter-finals of the 1970 World Cup.
Whether he makes it through to the Euros or whether he departs then, there will be no escaping his legacy. When England had their best chance of reaching the World Cup final for 60 years, Tuchel blew it.
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