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Did Thomas Tuchel's substitutions doom England against Argentina?
Thomas Tuchel was supposed to offer something different to Gareth Southgate, but Tuchel's England suffered a similar fate to those Southgate-coached sides who got so close to a major trophy yet left with nothing.
The Three Lions snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on Wednesday in their World Cup semi-final against Argentina, with Anthony Gordon's 55th-minute goal giving England the lead and allowing Tuchel's men to put one foot in Sunday's final.
However, Argentina fought back valiantly as they've done several times in this tournament, and a late flurry stunned England as la Albiceleste scored twice in the dying minutes to complete the comeback and secure a 2-1 victory.
- Read next | Tactical analysis: How England's defensive shell invited the Argentine siege that eventually broke it
It wasn't exactly a surprise that the Argentines would push right until the final whistle. They've done the exact same thing in recent matches, most notably against Egypt in the round of 16 when they scored three times in the final 11 minutes of the match to erase a 2-0 deficit.
Egyptian result aside, Argentina have shown throughout the World Cup's knockout stage that they are not to be underestimated in the late stages — before Wednesday, the defending champions had scored seven of their nine knockout goals in the 79th minute or later. Add in Wednesday's game, and those numbers jump up to nine of 11.
So what did Tuchel think he was going to accomplish by ending the match with six defenders on the field, after taking off the likes of Gordon and Declan Rice in favour of more defensive-minded players while protecting a one-goal lead?
"We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were too open," Tuchel said in his post-match interview, adding that he felt England were "too passive" after Gordon's goal and that they were allowing too many crosses into their own penalty area.
However, it's tough to see how players like Dan Burn, Ezri Konsa and Nico O'Reilly — all of whom entered the match while England were still leading — were going to help the team become less passive. If anything, the changes invited waves of Argentine attack, as the South Americans suddenly found themselves with tons of space ahead of a retreating opponent.
“It’s a panic, it’s a real panic,” England legend Wayne Rooney said on the BBC when analysing Tuchel's late-game decisions.
“You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the strength of the ball and surrender any opportunity going to try and get the second goal because that’s what you want to do.
“You want to be on the front foot, the pressure is on Argentina to get back in the game. If you go and get pressure on the ball, put tackles in, make runs in behind, they’re feeling it.
“If you let players of that quality have the ball around your penalty box, sooner or later they’re going to score.”
And score Argentina did, with both goals created by the unmatched talents of Lionel Messi, who gladly accepted all the space and time given to him on the right flank and engineered two great chances for his teammates: the first a booming strike from distance by Enzo Fernandez and the second a point-blank header by Lautaro Martinez from six yards out to seal the result.
It was an entirely unsurprising and avoidable final few minutes for England, who elected to sit back and allow Argentina to build their way back into the match after Gordon's opening goal rather than continuing to push forward and force Lionel Scaloni's side to defend at a time when they wanted to do the opposite.
And with Tuchel's personnel choices, there were precious few players left on the pitch for the Three Lions who could have acted as a release valve even if they wanted to.
“I said it on commentary, they had six defenders on the pitch, [Tuchel] played his hand and wanted to hang on," added Alan Shearer, who was also serving as an analyst alongside Rooney and other former England players for the BBC.
“Hanging on versus Norway [in the quarter-finals] and Mexico [in the round of 16]... they perhaps don’t have the quality Argentina have in terms of ability on ball and to punish, plus their attitude.
“He played his cards very early in the hope he could hang on and it backfired. Those decisions are the ones which can make such as difference.
“We praised him versus Mexico and now we’re going to go the other way. Could he have put some pace on? They were physically and mentally done once Argentina got that first goal.”
Unfortunately for England, Tuchel's ultra-defensive gamble backfired, and the nation that gifted football to the world can only watch once again as the sport's most prized trophy is won by someone else.
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