World Cup 2026

[Whitey Grandad]

31 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Tuchel was brought in to get us over the line in the big games. He spectacularly failed.

that was worse than anything Southgate did. Far worse. 
 

Kane has been a brilliant player but he now goes missing entirely in the big games, bar the odd cross field pass. He needed to come off last night (again) as he killed any forward momentum. I hope he calls it a day otherwise he will damage the team like Rooney did and what Ronaldo does for Portugal.

back to Tuchel. Those subs were fucking appalling. Just WTF. That cost is the game, no question what so ever. 

Kane couldn't come off. We didn't have another centre half to replace him.

[Osvaldorama]

6 hours ago, SNSUN said:

Disagree there although i agree with your squad questions.

On one hand there's no massive shame going out to Argentina in a WC semi. But bearing in mind the top 4 were separated (of which we were 4th seed) we did what we had to do to get where we were and apart from a second half against Croatia and the Mexico backs to the wall performance, we were largely relying on the world class Kane and Bellingham to get us to where we got. Southgate got us to a final and a semi. Granted it wasn't great to watch but he did it. I'm no TAA fan but I questioned Tuchel's squad selection pre tournament and I think it bit him in the arse a bit. Sure injuries played a part but come on.... Stones, James, Saka.... all been struggling for fitness. When we lost Tino pre tournament, we called up Chalobah for no reason whatsoever. Waste. And there's the over reliance on Kane when we took two other strikers. Take Watkins and then choose another AM or full back instead of a pointless 3rd striker, especially when Rashford can play there. 

Sure a Semi seems great, more so if we win on Saturday (we won't), but for me it is smoke and mirrors. The squad selection was unbalanced and tonight,  his subs were wrong. Small margins but he was brought in to make a difference.

If he stays, we have to win the Euros. Simples as that. 

(I'm saying this with Booze goggles on, I may re-read in the morning and disagree with myself but right now, it seems accurate.)

I’m not saying I disagree, but I’m saying his squad selection isn’t actually what let us down in the end.  

We had a squad there, playing well enough & in good enough form, last night to win that game. If he’d have been brave and brought in saka/rashford/Mainoo and tried to counter attack, we’d have won. 
 

He went so defensive and brought on only centre backs, it was fucking weird. No team will survive for half an hour with no midfield. 

Cowardly management and it killed us. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Osvaldorama

[AlexLaw76]

Spot on here

 

[egg]

8 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

I’m not saying I disagree, but I’m saying his squad selection isn’t actually what let us down in the end.  

We had a squad there, playing well enough & in good enough form, last night to win that game. If he’d have been brave and brought in saka/rashford/Mainoo and tried to counter attack, we’d have won. 
 

He went so defensive and brought on only centre backs, it was fucking weird. No team will survive for half an hour with no midfield. 

Cowardly management and it killed us. 

I think his squad selection was a big part in that. 

No midfield changes. What was his midfield option? Mainoo who he plainly didn't fancy. That's on him. Many better players were left at home. 

Only CB's on. What was his defensive option? He lost Tino and picked a CB who was never going to play. James was always an injury waiting to happen. His hammy went again last night. His only options were Burn or Chalobah. TAA or Shaw on the bench would have given us better options - just imagine if Shaw came on and Spence shifted to the right...he wasn't standing off Messi for the cross for their second. 

The squad selection was poor. The tactics were cowardly. 

I thought I might have felt less annoyed with TT this morning, but nope, he cost us with his squad selection, and tactics last night. 

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, egg said:

I think his squad selection was a big part in that. 

No midfield changes. What was his midfield option? Mainoo who he plainly didn't fancy. That's on him. Many better players were left at home. 

Only CB's on. What was his defensive option? He lost Tino and picked a CB who was never going to play. James was always an injury waiting to happen. His hammy went again last night. His only options were Burn or Chalobah. TAA or Shaw on the bench would have given us better options - just imagine if Shaw came on and Spence shifted to the right...he wasn't standing off Messi for the cross for their second. 

The squad selection was poor. The tactics were cowardly. 

I thought I might have felt less annoyed with TT this morning, but nope, he cost us with his squad selection, and tactics last night. 

He is (another) massive disappointment. Largely crap all tournament, saved by individual brilliance.

i believe there is needle between him and Bellingham, and maybe other players

[ludgershallsaint]

Has Dom Shaw claimed that Argentina should be lobbed out for displaying their crappy Falklands sign yet? 

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Have we sacked Tuchel yet?

[Paulwantsapint81]

16 minutes ago, ludgershallsaint said:

Has Dom Shaw claimed that Argentina should be lobbed out for displaying their crappy Falklands sign yet? 

Steve Gibson is on the case

[egg]

18 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

He is (another) massive disappointment. Largely crap all tournament, saved by individual brilliance.

i believe there is needle between him and Bellingham, and maybe other players

I think there's something in this, and I'm not convinced all's well between the players. I said last night that something appears amiss between Rashford and TT. I may be wrong, but my hunch is things aren't right. 

[Doctoroncall]

Although the focus will be on the Tuchel for his subs and overall game management, the players we have show the lack of quality in technical ability and nous. 

England had 12% possession after the goal, retreating deeper and deeper, which started before the defensive subs. not even counter attacking teams allow that amount of control from the opposition. 

The way to defend against a team as skilful as Argentina is to contest the game. England, as has been their sempiternal failing, simply don’t have enough quality players to hold on to the ball to start any counters or even seem to try to keep the ball for a moment.

Moreover, compared to England, Argentina are better even at longball, every Argentinian cross seemed to find an Argentinian head, despite the fact that their players are nearly all far shorter than England's, Lautaro Martinez, who scored the winner is 5'8", and every England cross or longball hoof found an Argentinian head.
 

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

27 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

He is (another) massive disappointment. Largely crap all tournament, saved by individual brilliance.

i believe there is needle between him and Bellingham, and maybe other players

Seems odd that Tuchel seemingly wasn't on the pitch at all after full time. Southgate would have been there with arms around the players etc. but as far as I could tell he was nowhere to be seen.

[Sheaf Saint]

32 minutes ago, egg said:

I think his squad selection was a big part in that. 

No midfield changes. What was his midfield option? Mainoo who he plainly didn't fancy. That's on him. Many better players were left at home.  

If only he'd taken Captain Shoe-horn. Looking at Tuchel's subs last night, it was a game that was crying out for his versatility and leadership.

[AlexLaw76]

Of course, the FA gave him a new deal just before the World Cup. 
 

Why do these organisations do this?

[badgerx16]

Shortly before the game Micah Richards learned that his father had died. Not sure I would have carried on in that circumstance.

[Saint NL]

Not sure how Tuchel can stay after that. A real shambles