When it mattered most, England floundered. They caved under the pressure. Thomas Tuchel, brought in as the tactical mastermind to offer the kind of winning edge that Gareth Southgate couldn’t, completely fluffed his lines.
Tuchel and the Twitter tacticos can try and defend those horrendous substitutions against Argentina. He can attempt to lay the blame at the feet of his players (that he selected) or ramble on nonsensically about “DNA”. No, Thomas, you got it wrong — take the blame, shoulder responsibility and, if you’re lucky enough to keep the job the FA stupidly tied you down to for another two years before the tournament — have enough humility to recognise you must be better.
So, of course, it was all very England-y for the Three Lions, with seven fresh faces in their line-up, to go out and smash France 6-4 in the meaningless, but extremely entertaining, third-place play-off in Miami on Saturday.
The first half was brutal — in that, with every mounting goal, England fans seemed to just get angrier.
The second half was remarkable. France, in Didier Deschamps’ final game, almost mounted a comeback for the ages. In fact, they should have done, with Michael Olise squandering several gilt-edged chances to level before Bukayo Saka rounded out a hat-trick to earn victory for England.
But, to reflect on the Three Lions’ tournament as a whole, we’ve rated their squad and manager. Ratings are given out of 10, with 1 being the lowest, and 10 the highest.
Jordan Pickford — 6: Not his best tournament, though, as ever, the level of scrutiny Pickford comes under is ridiculous. Every goal England conceded was, apparently, his fault, and Dean Henderson or James Trafford, with absolutely nothing to back up these claims, should instead take over as number one just yet.
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