Thomas Tuchel insists he has no regrets as Argentina dump England out of World Cup | OneFootball

Three Lions boss immediately came under fire for his approach in semi-final defeat

The Three Lions took the lead as Anthony Gordon broke the deadlock shortly after half-time, but failed to capitalise on their advantage, sitting deep before conceding decisive late goals to Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez.

Tuchel, a purported tactical genius, was brought in to help England get over the line in major tournaments, but has come in for immediate criticism for his approach to the game.

After taking the lead, England sat back, and he decided to replace Declan Rice and Anthony Gordon with centre-backs Ezri Konsa and Dan Burn. He also added left-back Nico O’Reilly about ten minutes from time.

He threw Marcus Rashford and Ivan Toney into the fray after Martinez’s decider, but by then it was too late.

Speaking at full-time, though, he stuck to his guns, saying he would happily take responsibility for the loss but not apologise for his approach.

"You can discuss this with a million coaches [but] I have to make a decision on the pitch,” he told BBC Sport.

Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions against Argentina have been questioned

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"I analysed the match and I did it a certain way so that's my responsibility. In the moment, no regrets. The team gave everything and we were very, very close. We deserved to be up 1-0.”

Tuchel doubled down, saying he had hoped to go in for the kill after Gordon’s opener but simply could not overcome Argentina’s suffocating attack.

"Yes but it doesn't help if you can't get the ball. We couldn't get out,” he said, asked whether he had wanted to push for a second goal.

"Of course we wanted to go for the second goal but I did not have the feeling that offensive substitutions would help. We stayed in our 4-4-2 but we became passive, more and more passive.

Heroes: Lautaro Martinez and Enzo Fernandez were Argentina’s goalscorers in their latest turnaround victory

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"We couldn't win any balls, we couldn't keep the ball so I think it was not a structural problem, we changed nothing. But the match changed completely.

"It's no problem, I can understand these discussions are out there and there are millions of coaches after the game who know it better.

“We played one of our better matches, maybe our best match in the circumstances. The team was top, we couldn't get over the line but no regrets.”

Ultimately, Tuchel said he regretted nothing of England’s approach to the tournament, congratulating his team on overcoming tricky circumstances to produce some memorable results.

"I think we saw the mentality throughout the match and the strong group. We played the matches how they were, we played against strong teams in the group, travelled a lot of miles, played at altitude, we played with 10 men, we played in the heat and we overcame every obstacle.

"We were very close today. It's not the moment to analyse the full tournament, we just went out because we lost a crucial match.”