Three England players 'complained privately' about Thomas Tuchel decision vs Argentina

Thomas Tuchel’s defensive changes were blamed for England’s World Cup defeat to Argentina (Getty)

Three senior

England

players have privately complained about

Thomas Tuchel

’s tactics during their 2-1 defeat to Argentina in the

World Cup

semi-final, according to reports.

England took the lead in the 55th minute through

Anthony Gordon

but a second-half collapse saw

Enzo Fernandez

equalise for Argentina before Lautaro Martinez scored the winner in the second minute of injury time.

Tuchel has faced strong criticism in the wake of England’s defeat as he made three defensive substitutions and switched to a back five in order to protect his side’s lead.

Former England captain

Wayne Rooney

accused Tuchel of costing the team a place in the World Cup final against Spain

and claimed the German’s changes made the players ‘lose belief’.

Tuchel, however, defended his decisions after England’s collapse

and claimed that an attacking substitution would not have caused Argentina problems

.

According to the

BBC

, at least three senior England players have ‘complained privately’ about the team’s approach during the second half and believe Tuchel’s changes ‘exacerbated their defensive retreat’.

Some of England players believes Thomas Tuchel’s changes ‘exacerbated’ their defensive mindset (Getty)

The report adds that ‘certain players believe the team should have had greater licence to press the ball’ in order for England to stop Argentina’s wave of attacks.

Elsewhere,

The Independent

reports that Argentina were ‘stunned’ by Tuchel’s decision to not bring on either Bukayo Saka or Noni Madueke in the second half in order to give England more attacking threat.

After seeing England’s defensive changes in the second half, Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni opted to throw more caution to the wind by bringing on match-winner Martinez for left-back Nicolas Tagliafico.

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Meanwhile, Tuchel admits that England’s ‘big problem’ is their inability to keep the ball and claims ‘no structure in the world’ would have stopped the second-half collapse against Argentina.

‘I think ball possession plays a crucial role,’ Tuchel said.

‘It’s maybe not in our DNA like it is in the Spanish, Argentinian or Brazilian DNA. To take the ball and control the game and the ball, which is also a big problem.

Thomas Tuchel claims ball possession is not in England’s ‘DNA’ (Getty)

‘But like in every structure, it was important to stay active and push out and fight duels… we just couldn’t.

‘I think in this moment my feeling is that no structure in the world could have helped us because we were too passive. We were not physical enough. We didn’t stop runs arriving in our box and the deliveries were then too good.

‘Right after our goal, the momentum swings completely in ball possession and chances and it drops dramatically. We got too passive within our structure. I tried to help, not to become more passive with a back five, but to be more active, to be quicker out to the wingers, not to open up the gaps between the back four.

‘We encouraged everyone to step out, to be more active within the structure, but we just struggled. We needed to get back on the ball otherwise you cannot break the pressure and you cannot get the momentum back.’

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