​England manager Thomas Tuchel has no one but himself to blame for his team’s 1-2 defeat to Argentina in the World Cup semifinals.The former Bayern Munich coach was sitting pretty on the hour mark, having seen his team make the breakthrough through Anthony Gordon. However, instead of taking advantage of a panicky Argentina and going for the jugular, Tuchel decided to lower the tempo and invite the pressure. He made defensive-minded substitutes, and eventually put up a wall of six defenders.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, that only gave Argentina the chance to regroup and launch an aerial bombardment of England’s defense, which started to waver and was only held steady by some strong saves from Jordan Pickford. It was only a matter of time before Argentina bore fruit, and with five minutes to go in normal time, Lionel Messi found Enzo Fernández on the outside of the penalty area. The Chelsea midfielder let loose a fiery shot that gave Pickford no chance.England were shell-shocked, and their already lopsided formation was to spell trouble in extra time. However, Argentina made sure they didn’t even reach extra time when Messi delivered a cross (with his right foot for a change) for Lautaro Martínez to head home.Tuchel panicked and sent on Ivan Toney and Marcus Rashford in the dying minutes, but to no avail. He thus paid the price as England’s hopes of a first World Cup final in 60 years died out with a meek whimper.Questions will be asked of Tuchel as to why he decided to shut up shop against a fearsome Argentina attack and a Messi in red-hot form with over half an hour to go. Fans may accuse him of a cowardly approach. Whatever the truth is, only Tuchel himself will know. However, the result speaks for itself. The world champions are back in the World Cup final, while Tuchel bows out of the semifinals of another major tournament…just over two years after he did the same with Bayern.Sign up for a user account and get:New, improved notifications system!Fewer adsCreate community postsComment on articles, community postsRec comments, community posts