Anthony Gordon ‘surprised’ by Tuchel’s World Cup blunder – ‘It leaves a scar’ | OneFootball

Anthony Gordon has admitted he was “surprised” by Thomas Tuchel’s decision to take him off following his goal against Argentina in the World Cup semi-final.

England were 20 minutes away from a place in the final after Gordon’s strike gave them the lead over the South American side when Tuchel decided to replace the goalscorer with Ezri Konsa.

The switch to a 5-4-1 formation invited pressure from Argentina, who easily overturned the deficit and broke Three Lions hearts, and after initially claiming his players were to blame for failing to keep possession effectively, Tuchel has since admitted that the defensive move came too soon.

“Yeah, I was [surprised], being totally honest,” Gordon said when asked about his substitution. “Only because I’d just scored. I’m the type of player that, I’ve said before, I’m really good when I play off adrenaline. When I score, I normally don’t have many bad games because I get into an untouchable mode of confidence. It makes me feel on top of the world. Especially in that moment, on that stage, I felt really good.”

Tuchel was convinced at the time that fatigue would cost his side if they continued in the same vein.

“We conceded a chance just before the water break. I thought we will not survive. This is death,” Tuchel confessed. “I thought: ‘OK, let’s change to a back five, a 5-4-1.’ It was too early for that mindset. It was Congo, Miami and Norway and then Mexico and altitude. We were super tired.”

‘It leaves a scar’

Gordon has opened up on a meeting held at St George’s Park which allowed the player and staff to face the disappointment of the World Cup and attempt to put it behind them.

“We had a meeting on the first day, which was important because we’re probably best not kidding each other,” Gordon continued. “It was a massive disappointment because we felt like we were going to win, or we felt in a really good place. So it was important to just get that out the way and move forwards.

“It was quite a positive meeting. The coach was just saying ‘thank you’ for a lot of things because, as far as the summer goes, it was the best of my life. I had some of the best experiences that I’ve ever had in that summer. So I couldn’t be any more happy and proud.

“I’ve never felt better than when I scored that goal in the Argentina game and I’ve also never felt worse than 20 minutes later. Being totally honest, I think any time you lose anything of value in life – whether it be a person or something like a match or anything you really want to have or win or anything of large value – you’ll never be the same person.

“It leaves a scar, but that scar doesn’t always have to be a negative one. You can be a better person for it. You can learn different things about the world, about yourself. So that’s kind of the way I’m looking at it, and hopefully, me and the team will get better for it rather than the other way around.”