Tuchel bottled it and FAILED his players - but FA must take portion of blame

The brutal reality is that Thomas Tuchel has been left badly wounded. Suddenly, Tuchel does not appear to be such a genius after all. It was his tactics that failed the players rather than the other way round.

The aura surrounding England’s “

world

class” coach has quickly been replaced by a chorus of criticism over his tactics against

Argentina

.

Former Three Lions captain

Wayne Rooney

blamed Tuchel’s decisions and said England “crumbled.” Alan Shearer said Tuchel’s tactics “backfired.”

BBC

pundit Chris Sutton said it was a “coaching catastrophe.” There was a genuine disbelief among many England fans out here in the

United States

about the manner of the defeat.

England looked in real danger of defeat as soon as they went ahead. Almost immediately, England tried to shut up shop, man the barricades and defend.

They ended up with five at the back. They invited Argentina onto them when, actually, England were at their best when they were on the front foot.

Why? Because Argentina are an ageing team with poor full backs, they are patched-up and led by the genius of

Lionel Messi

. Allowing Messi to have the ball is a recipe for disaster. Sitting in for so much of the game remaining is negative beyond belief. The most damning stat of all was that England had 12 per cent possession from taking the lead to conceding the winner in injury time.

That is shocking. Yes, it has to be partly about keeping the ball better. But Tuchel must take the lion’s share of the blame for being too negative.

Back in March, Tuchel said England were “afraid” to lose in the Euros and did not have the “hunger and excitement” to win it. Sadly,

old quotes tend to come back and haunt you.

This one will not just haunt Tuchel. It makes him look very daft.

Tuchel was brought in for his expertise in knockout football. He led

Chelsea

to the

Champions League

final. He is no-nonsense, ruthless and makes good substitutions.

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All things which were said to be Southgate’s weaknesses. Sadly, Tuchel’s subs were poor, he lost the game and the magic has faded. He will do well to win back fans who are doubting him.

Things change very quickly in football. England fans loved the wins over

Mexico

and

Norway

. They were on the march. Hope were high. This could be the chance - and then Tuchel lost his bottle. Quite whether you can get that respect back is anyone’s guess. It has been a wonderful ride in the World Cup. The fans have enjoyed it. But the disappointment is bruising and damaging.

Tuchel will have to go a long way to get the fans back onside. There is never any question that the

Football

Association love Tuchel. To suggest that has changed after losing in the semi-final is utterly bizarre.

But they did make a mistake in giving him another two years. Why? They did not feel the need at first, so why panic? He was hired to win the World Cup, win-or-bust, a gun for hire.

And if his contract was due to expire immediately after this World Cup, would he have been so cautious against Argentina? Of course not.

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