2026 World Cup: Thomas Tuchel's "England DNA comments" were "alarming"

Ahead of England's 2026 World Cup third-placed playoff against France, Sports Mole's Site Coordinator Ben Knapton discusses the Three Lions' exit in the semi-finals.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator: "It was absolutely gut-wrenching"

It was absolutely gut-wrenching. The manner of the defeat reminded me of Arsenal's loss to PSG in the Champions League final.

That's a game I didn't expect us to win - same with England. I thought Argentina were going to win, but to lose it in that way was gut-wrenching and soul-destroying.

It was inevitable. Ever since that first Pickford save from Nico Gonzalez's header, you could see Argentina were going to come back - this is what they do.

We were inviting so much pressure. We used the same tactics against Mexico and Norway.

Fair enough, it worked against those teams, but why would it work when you're facing the greatest player of all time, in the opinion of three of us, and the best attacking team at the World Cup?

I also talked up the physical advantage England would have, especially defending aerial balls and set pieces, in our preview.

But it seemed Argentina got first contact to every single cross and set piece. Lautaro Martinez, 5'9" - the same height as me - shouldn't be winning that header. The marking for that was appalling.

The negative approach that Southgate was always lambasted for: if he had taken charge of that game, every single person would be calling for his head.

A lot of people are calling for Tuchel to go as well, but you can imagine if that was Southgate, the absolute national furore that would have emanated from that game. Just 12% possession in those last 30 minutes.

There's such a fear factor for England when it comes to facing these big teams - this was the seventh time since '98 that we'd faced a top 10 ranked nation in the World Cup, and we've lost all seven of them.

Dan Burn was brought on and played mainly as a striker; his heat map showed him in the final third. He was brought on when England were 1-0 up, Argentina equalised about three minutes later, and he wasn't really there to defend the box.

He was brought on as an emergency centre-forward, and it's just baffling. Cape Verde and Egypt both scored twice against Argentina - their defence is suspect in the wide areas.

We saw Rogers from one side and Gordon on the other: our wide threat, their wide weakness. We talked those up before the game; we exposed them once, why didn't we just go for it again?

Even if we had still lost, it's much more preferable to lose going for it, rather than losing in the manner we did. In that moment, every single person watching the game could see what was coming, apart from Thomas Tuchel.

Some of his post-match comments were also quite worrying - he said it wasn't really in the England DNA to control the ball, and that was alarming.

It should be in England's DNA. We maybe don't have a passing identity like Spain, or can't dominate in the same way that Argentina have at this World Cup, but England are a top four ranked nation. It should be in their DNA to control the ball and control games.