Tuchel's game management was a joke

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vargentina

Community Member
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Jan 24, 2025
What a bizarre night that was. England looked like they had a plan early on, then Tuchel seemed to decide the best idea was to sit deeper, kill the press and invite Argentina onto them for no obvious reason.

The timing of the changes has everyone fuming, and fair enough, because it felt like the game was there to be managed rather than handed over. When you are only one goal up, why make it easier for Argentina and Messi to keep coming at you?

It has turned into a proper argument about cowardly tactics, game management and whether Tuchel overthought the whole thing. Some will say he froze, others will say the squad should have done better, but either way it ended up looking like a right mess.
 
It's mind-boggling to see them play all-out defence while leading 1-0 against an Argentina team that has been making comebacks throughout the entire tournament
 
The shape made no sense once the substitutions came on. England lost their press, lost their outlet, and Argentina could just keep pushing them back. If you want to protect a lead, you still need a way to keep the ball and relieve pressure.
 
people are acting like this was some genius plan that just didnt come off but honestly it was a complete surrender from the moment he started dropping everyone deeper, and that is on Tuchel not the players because you can see the whole team panicking and retreating and inviting pressure for no reason, and fair enough Argentina are good enough to punish that every single time, but why are you telling your side to sit off when they had already shown they could bother them higher up the pitch, it was one of those games where you could feel the momentum swing and he just let it happen, no bravery no control no attempt to keep the ball and calm it down, just endless clearances and hope and thats not elite management its cowardice plain and simple
 
I cannot get over how quickly he threw the game away because it wasnt even like Argentina were smashing them and England were hanging on by a thread, they actually had moments where they looked comfortable and then he just started making the kind of changes that tell everyone in the stadium you are scared of your own shadow, deeper line, no press, no outlet, and suddenly the whole thing becomes attack after attack against you, it is the same old story with these so called top managers who think sitting on a lead is the same as controlling a game, it isnt, it is begging to get pinned in and eventually punished, and once that happens the players look worse because they are stuck defending wave after wave while the manager hides behind his subs and his body language and his little post match excuses
 
People need to stop pretending this was just bad luck because one player looked especially off it, the issue was the whole setup and the most annoying part is that it kept funnelling everything through the wrong areas and making one particular player carry impossible responsibilities, if you are going to talk about the bench then talk about how the shape meant there was no proper support for the wide players, no real link in midfield and no one to relieve pressure when Argentina started pushing, then suddenly every ball looks rushed and every touch looks heavy and everyone piles on the same lad like he is supposed to fix a tactical disaster by himself, he was set up to fail by a manager who decided caution was a strategy and not a weakness
 
He overreacted to the state of the game and killed England’s best phase. Once the press dropped off, Argentina could dictate the rhythm far too easily, imo
 
Tuchel really thought he could outsmart everyone by going full damage control and it just made the whole thing look worse, like the moment you stop pressing and start panicking Argentina are going to smell blood and pile on the pressure, and then the crowd gets on edge and the players start booting it long and it becomes a total circus, proper self inflicted nonsense mate
 
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