THOMAS TUCHEL has been accused of blaming England players for their World Cup defeat to Argentina.
The Three Lions held a 1-0 lead as late as the 84th minute, before inspired the reigning world champions to a dramatic late comeback to book a spot in the final.
Thomas Tuchel has been accused of blaming England players for defeat Credit: BBC
Tuchel defended his position on his subs Credit: Alamy
Enzo Fernandez hit a stunner from outside the area for the 85th minute equaliser, before Lautaro Martinez scored an injury-time header.
slammed Tuchel for a perceived lack of belief in his squad, while fans also accused the 52-year-old of making cowardly subs.
Tuchel defended his position when speaking to the after the game, with his comments seeing some fans suggest he was shifting blame to his players.
He said: “We scored and conceded a lot of chances. We conceded so many chances and shots. We were close but couldn’t keep the level up after we scored.”
On his subs he said: “We decided to go to a back five to try and close the gaps and be strong in the air.
“Straight after our goal with no substitutions we conceded way too many crosses and chances.
“We tried to help but ultimately the responsibility is on the coach and if it doesn’t go well it’s easy to say it was wrong.”
Asked whether he thought about grabbing a second goal, Tuchel said: “Yeah but it doesn’t help if we don’t have the ball. We couldn’t get out, of course we wanted to go for the second goal.
“But I had the feeling an offensive substitution wouldn’t help. We stayed in our 4-4-2 and we got more and more passive and we couldn’t win or keep the ball.
“It wasn’t a structural problem, we changed nothing after the goal but the match changed completely.
“But it’s no problem, I can understand these discussions take place out there, millions of coaches know it better.”
Reacting to the comments on social media, one fan said: “Tuchel was very quick to criticize his players after most of their games but never took responsibility himself for any of his decisions.”
A second said: “Tuchel quick to blame the players last week but won’t take any responsibility for his decisions tonight.. rather cowardly.”
A third added: “Just listened to Tuchel being interviewed and was hoping he’d be honest and say he got it wrong being too defensive but instead seemed to blame the players.”
While the inquest continues into the defeat, will be left to lick their wounds before the third place play-off against on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Argentina face for ‘s ultimate prize.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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