England players will have lost belief at Thomas Tuchel’s second-half substitutions in the World Cup semifinal defeat to Argentina, according to former captain Wayne Rooney.
Anthony Gordon put England ahead early in the second half but was soon withdrawn by Tuchel, who brought defenders Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly in the final 20 minutes.
His changes backfired as Enzo Fernández equalised in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martínez struck a stoppage-time winner to seal Argentina’s spot in Sunday’s final.
England’s defensive approach to holding a lead carried eerie echoes of their Euro 2020 final loss to Italy, with former boss Sir Gareth Southgate criticised in some circles for his tactical approach.
They fell on their swords again under Southgate in the the Euro 2024 final against Spain, with the manager again criticised for his tactics.
Speaking on the BBC, former England and Manchester united forward Rooney said: “If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up and you see the changes which the manager’s making, you’re losing belief, there’s only so many times you can get away with it.
“Then you start thinking: ‘Oh no, we’re going to sit back for this long, how are we going to get through this?'”
Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart also drew tactical comparisons between Southgate and Tuchel.
He said: “I think Gareth Southgate will be at home watching this game, he took a lot of criticism when it came to the big moments with England when they had the lead and when they were in big games about shutting up shop.
“I don’t see anything’s changed in that big moment out there.
“Thomas Tuchel, for as much praise as we’ve given him, for him to change it as soon as he did, I think he realised that’s him saying he didn’t believe in his team, he didn’t think they could land any more punches on Argentina.”
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BBC commentator Alan Shearer added: “I said it on commentary, they had six defenders on the pitch, [he] played his hand and wanted to hang on.
“Hanging on vs. Norway and Mexico, they perhaps don’t have the quality Argentina have in terms of ability on ball and to punish, plus their attitude.
“He played his cards very early in the hope he could hang on and it backfired. Those decisions are the ones which can make such as difference.
“We praised him vs. Mexico and now we’re going to go the other way … Could he have put some pace on? They were physically and mentally done once Argentina got that first goal.”
Rooney also suggested that after going a goal up, England “surrendered” their opportunity to search for a second goal.
“It’s a panic, it’s a real panic,” he added.
“You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the strength of the ball and surrender any opportunity going to try and get the second goal because that’s what you want to do.
“You want to be on the front foot, the pressure is on Argentina to get back in the game. If you go and get pressure on the ball, put tackles in, make runs in behind, they’re feeling it.
“If you let players of that quality have the ball around your penalty box, sooner or later they’re going to score.”
