England v Argentina World Cup Semifinal Thread

[demeant0r]

Oh boy, Nick Bateman will be having a field day

Sad you feel that is important to me. All I say is my warnings or leaving so many top level players out and now finding the Arsenal players are rubbish. Tuchel ruined England but had good tactics, but threw his tactics out the window and played super negative, something he argued against Southgate's style. He betrayed us!

Betrayed or naive in thinking we should park the bus, much like Marco of late?

[St Eve]

Whilst I agree with 99% of your comments, how many other managers have got us to the semi final stages of the World Cup?

You get nothing from losing a semi final. His decisions were terrible. Do the right thing and resign immediately

[fulhams_finest]

Oh boy, Nick Bateman will be having a field day

Sad you feel that is important to me. All I say is my warnings or leaving so many top level players out and now finding the Arsenal players are rubbish. Tuchel ruined England but had good tactics, but threw his tactics out the window and played super negative, something he argued against Southgate's style. He betrayed us!

Betrayed or naive in thinking we should park the bus, much like Marco of late?

Reminded me exactly of our games like everton away last year when we went 5 at the back too early and concede 2 late goals. Was almost vintage Marco.

[Super Mick]

Tuchel was brought in to take England to the next level. He failed with one of the most strange tactical decisions you will ever witness.

[Andrew]

I just heard tuchs on the bbc... he is a state of mega denial. His analysis was totally wrong and his answers are sufficiently poor that the FA needs to let him go before the third place play off debacle

 This is ramsey in 1970 all over again
made the wrong decisions when we were winning and cost us the game.... we have not yet learned or recovered, I feel very cheated as a supporter watching England underachieve because the FA pick the man that they think looks best rather than one that knows what he is doing... This manger is not good enough, he should go now! we could have kept southgate if this is the best this one can manage.

[Sgt Fulham]

Whilst I agree with 99% of your comments, how many other managers have got us to the semi final stages of the World Cup?

Well I would hope we would beat DR Congo, Mexico, and Norway. Easier said than done of course, but the sort of games anyone with aspirations of winning the world cup should expect to win. And it wasnt exactly convincing. None of them were. We didnt get through them through great team performances or tactical masterclass. We were dragged on the back of England's 2 truly world class players, Bellingham and Kane. As a team we play like side ranked outside the top 10.

[Asotosyios]

Tuchel did the same thing against Mexico and Norway - unfortunately, it didn't work tonight.

I really thought that the time had come for England to win it again, but you cannot only defend for almost a whole half - you need to play a bit of football too or, at least, try to.

[Super Mick]

I just heard tuchs on the bbc... he is a state of mega denial. His analysis was totally wrong and his answers are sufficiently poor that the FA needs to let him go before the third place play off debacle

 This is ramsey in 1970 all over again
made the wrong decisions when we were winning and cost us the game.... we have not yet learned or recovered, I feel very cheated as a supporter watching England underachieve because the FA pick the man that they think looks best rather than one that knows what he is doing... This manger is not good enough, he should go now! we could have kept southgate if this is the best this one can manage.

Let's see what Pep can do with this lot.

[Snibbo]

Like Fulham, England can't cross a ball (goal excepted). In contrast, just about every Argentinean cross was dangerous.

[Coast94]

We basically became sitting ducks against one of the best teams in the world. 10 players just parked in our box with no outlet whatsoever. Everyone could see what would happen.

100% on Tuchel. Horrendous game management at 1-0 up with all the momentum. He should resign.

[RaySmith]

Hard to comprehend what Tuchel was doing, bringing on defenders and having us sit back defending our goal area, with no pacey outlets to take the ball up and relive the pressure. It was fatal against a team of Argentina's quality, with their crossing ability.
It was only when it was too late when Tuchel brought on attackers, and we showed how we could put Argentina under pressure.

It just seemed madness, when we'd done so well to match them and be a goal up, it was as if we  threw the game away. I feel gutted for the players, who gave so much the whole  tournament.
BUT If we had managed to keep that second, soft goal, out, and somehow come through in  extra time, Tuchel would be a hero.

[Deuce]

Agree with most on here. This is on Tuchel. Comparisons to Marco, but personally I got Parker vibes. That "all or nothing" subs


England had 12 percent possession between Gordons goal och Martinez. And had 25 correct passes in those 30 minuter. Of those total 39 passes, 12 of those was Pickfords.

Total surrender after Gordons goal

[Dr Know]

Whilst I agree with 99% of your comments, how many other managers have got us to the semi final stages of the World Cup?

Well I would hope we would beat DR Congo, Mexico, and Norway. Easier said than done of course, but the sort of games anyone with aspirations of winning the world cup should expect to win. And it wasnt exactly convincing. None of them were. We didnt get through them through great team performances or tactical masterclass. We were dragged on the back of England's 2 truly world class players, Bellingham and Kane. As a team we play like side ranked outside the top 10.

Kane and Bellingham are definitely not world class !

[Coastwalker]

Whilst I agree with 99% of your comments, how many other managers have got us to the semi final stages of the World Cup?

Well I would hope we would beat DR Congo, Mexico, and Norway. Easier said than done of course, but the sort of games anyone with aspirations of winning the world cup should expect to win. And it wasnt exactly convincing. None of them were. We didnt get through them through great team performances or tactical masterclass. We were dragged on the back of England's 2 truly world class players, Bellingham and Kane. As a team we play like side ranked outside the top 10.

Kane and Bellingham are definitely not world class !

Precisely that,where were they last night,outshone by a 39yo guy.
Now he's World class.

[Bassey the warrior]

Having mulled it over I'm actually genuinely angry with Tuchel. It was a huge tactical blunder, there was no need to withdraw Gordon and doing so completely nullified our threat, allowing Argentina to push up the pitch.

There's no question we needed a fit Rice in that game to help us regain the ball, but if we're gonna sub him we should've brought on Mainoo to help retain the ball, then switched to 4-3-3 instead of 4-2-3-1. Bellingham started his career as a def mid so could've helped us keep solid. If that still wasn't working, bring on Toney for Kane and go direct.

This is groundhog day, happens every time we take the lead in knockout games, but Tuchel was supposed to be different.

[Dr Know]

Watkins should have started instead of the sloth Kane !

[Bassey the warrior]

In my opinion Rice's fitness issues have been fundamental to our poor performances. We needed his dynamism at both ends of the pitch. I can understand why Tuchel is reluctant to start Mainoo in a midfield two but he should've brought Wharton. Wharton could've played the 6 and Anderson the 8, as he does for Forest.

We've obviously had issues in defence and we've also missed a fit Saka, but midfield is the biggest issue.

[Bassey the warrior]

Whilst I agree with 99% of your comments, how many other managers have got us to the semi final stages of the World Cup?

Well I would hope we would beat DR Congo, Mexico, and Norway. Easier said than done of course, but the sort of games anyone with aspirations of winning the world cup should expect to win. And it wasnt exactly convincing. None of them were. We didnt get through them through great team performances or tactical masterclass. We were dragged on the back of England's 2 truly world class players, Bellingham and Kane. As a team we play like side ranked outside the top 10.

Kane and Bellingham are definitely not world class !

They're not miracle workers. Messi was able to do his thing because the other 9 players were willing to put in a shift.

Kane in this hybrid role only works if there are runners all over the pitch. Both Rice and James were too knackered for that, so we were rather neutered in the central and right attack. Argentina were able to double up on Bellingham and whilst he had plenty of good moments, Rogers needed more support.

This is on Tuchel, not the players.

[bencher]

After all these years and the supposed technical improvements, England still don't have (or don't use) the midfielders to control a game. Even against somewhat inferior teams such as Mexico and Norway, we struggled to control the midfield and ended up relying on rearguard actions to get through. That was never going to work against Argentina, but rather than bring on midfielders to try to seize back the initiative, we/he doubled down on parking the bus. We'll be here again each tournament until we change how we play.

[F(f)CUK]

I was thinking about what Marco would have said and done, and regrettably I find myself supporting some of the things that Nick Bateman has been droning on about.

So England score after 55 minutes. After that we stopped playing.  We have obviously learned nothing from Croatia in the previous semi and Italy in the Euro final. I can hear Silva saying that we have to be brave. From the 55th minute to the first hydration break we were already passive. We stopped trying to pass and play our way out of the much more intense press. By the time of the hydration break we had set the tone. Tuchel then doubled down on the tactics and brought on defensive reinforcements.

How would Silva have responded in this situation for Fulham, he would have thrown on Tom Cairney. We neded someone to hold the ball and then take the sting out of the press. This is where I reluctantly agree with Nick, as those players were left behind.

In the end, we took the lead too early and then played like minnows in an FA Cup match against Manchester City. Our national psyche is wrong as we went straight into this mindset as soon as we scored.