Rooney leads backlash at Tuchel’s ‘coaching catastrophe’

Telegraph SportThu, July 16, 2026 at 4:47 AM UTC

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Thomas Tuchel’s ‘negative’ tactics proved costly - Etsuo Hara/Getty Images

Wayne Rooney accused Thomas Tuchel of panicking as former players and pundits laid into the England manager’s approach against Argentina.

Anthony Gordon put England ahead in the 55th minute, but he was soon withdrawn by Tuchel, who brought on defenders Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly in the final 20 minutes. Enzo Fernandez equalised in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martinez struck a stoppage-time winner to earn a 2-1 win for Argentina.

England’s defensive approach to holding a lead carried eerie echoes of their Euro 2020 final loss to Italy, when former boss Sir Gareth Southgate was criticised for his tactical approach.

Speaking on the BBC, former England captain Rooney said: “The decisions Thomas Tuchel has made, we have to be honest, have cost us tonight.

“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?’”

“It’s a panic, it’s a real panic. You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the ball and surrender any opportunity of going to try and get the second goal, because that’s what you want to do.

“If you let players of that quality have the ball around your penalty box, sooner or later they’re going to score.”

Former England goalkeeper Joe Hart 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 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.”

Former England striker Michael Owen compared England’s performance to that of finalists Spain, who claimed a 2-0 victory over France in their final-four clash on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Owen said: “Watch Spain at 1-0 last night. That’s courage. That’s bravery. And then watch England at 1-0. What’s the difference?

“We are a better team than Argentina, I’ve no doubt in my mind. But we deserved to get beat in the end. In fact, it could have been 4-1.

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“Bringing on three defenders at 1-0 up. What message does that send?”

Rooney added: “These fans have spent a lot of money to be out here. I expected more in this game.

“Argentina are the world champions. We knew it was going to be the difference.

“The changes we made didn’t help us. Devastated. Sometimes you need a bit of luck to win these tournaments.”

Tuchel’s changes were branded a “coaching catastrophe” by former Blackburn and Celtic striker Chris Sutton.

Sutton said on BBC Five Live: “It was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative, defending deep, another defender on.

“It’s quite a simple game football, you have to get up the pitch. You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina have and keep giving the ball back to them, that’s what England did and it’s all on the coach as far as I’m concerned.

“He made the changes, he was negative. So the question which I’m going to ask is, how can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this England team forward?

“I don’t care what anybody says, England have had a generous run in this competition, England haven’t played well in one 90 minutes in the World Cup.”

In a post on X, Iker Casillas said Tuchel had “committed hara-kiri”, which is a traditional form of ritual suicide by disembowelment via abdomen cutting, practised notably by Japanese samurai.

Former Bayern Munich midfielder Thomas Muller, a World Cup winner with Germany in 2014, said in a video posted on X: “I cannot believe and understand how England approaches this game, especially after they are leading.

“I cannot understand, to invite the whole Argentina game to hit one cross after another from perfect crossing positions, but no matter...”Chelsea celebrated midfielder Fernandez’s equaliser with a picture of his celebration accompanied by a ‘explosion’ emoji on X but hastily deleted it after supporters criticised the post. “We’re an English football club. Poor from my club. Poor,” one fan wrote.

“Gutted,” said Newcastle defender Dan Burn. “Absolutely gutted.

“We nailed the gameplan pretty well. To go 1-0 up... then we got too passive, conceded too many crosses and too many chances.

“When you’re playing a team of that quality, it is going to cost you. This will haunt me for a long time, I think.”

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