England boss Thomas Tuchel has defended his tactical decisions in the World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina at a heated press conference, Yankee Scores reports.
Speaking ahead of England’s match for the third-place play-off against France on Saturday in Miami, Tuchel said, “If you need someone to blame, I take the responsibility.”
However, the Germany head coach said that he had no regrets and that he and his players have been feeling the pain the most, calling it “the scar we carry now,” per BBC Sport.
England were on the verge of securing their first appearance in a men’s World Cup final in 60 years.
However, an advantage of 1-0 was turned around in the dying seconds as the England defense got deeper and deeper under constant pressure from the genius and determination of Lionel Messi’s world champions.
During the news conference Tuchel also said:
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England’s team spirit should not be questioned, but his side became “too passive” in the latter stages
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There is a gap to the top teams and he will not stop trying to close it
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The Mexico and Norway games had an impact by taking a lot physically out of the players
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Captain Harry Kane ended up so deep because “that’s what you do if you defend in a block”
Analyzing the difficult 2-1 World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina, England coach Thomas Tuchel did not change his mind about the tactics used by the team even after admitting that his side became passive in the last 35 minutes of the game.
When Argentina upped its performance in response to England’s first goal, Thomas Tuchel made a tactical switch to a back five in response to the opponents’ width, crosses, and runners.
Despite failing to stop the opponents from scoring in the 85th and 92nd minutes, Tuchel did not want to play the blame game and declared his full responsibility for the defeat as the head coach.
When talking about Harry Kane playing deeper late in the match, Thomas Tuchel said that it was caused by the way the team defended in a deep block. Additionally, he defended the physical performance of the players by comparing it to statistics of earlier games.
According to him, such hard games as those against Mexico (10 players at the Azteca Stadium), and Norway in hot Miami weather left his players more tired than expected.
He assured that the motivation of the team was “through the roof” and they gave everything they physically had.
