​Gary Lineker has described Thomas Tuchel’s tactics in England’s World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina as “unfathomable”.England took the lead early in the second half through Anthony Gordon but paid for a negative approach thereafter as Enzo Fernandez struck in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martinez’s stoppage-time winner.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementEngland boss Tuchel made several defensive substitutions, bringing on Ezri Konsa, Nico O’Reilly and Dan Burn, but they could not stop Lionel Messi setting up both goals from the right wing.Speaking on The Rest is Football on Netflix, former England striker Lineker said: “I found it absolutely unfathomable that, if your tactic is to sit everyone deep, you do that against the greatest player ever to play football.“I think he’s just cementing that game after game after game. Most goals in the World Cup, most assists in the World Cup. And he moves to the right, and you play a back five, and you still don’t go and get tight to him.“Just put someone on him. He had so much space. He just whipped ball after ball after ball into the box.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFormer midfielder Joe Cole cited a negative mentality in sight of victory after England lost a third successive World Cup semi-final.Cole said: “It was deflating, wasn’t it? Because we’ve been here before. I think it’s the same problems. If you ever take England on and get it done, you have to get over the hurdle where the fear of failure just paralyses England teams.“Twelve per cent possession after we scored the goal, that tells you there’s something there. It’s a mindset. We could talk about tactics, substitutions and everything like that, but ultimately it comes from a manager.“Too many times, it’s like a panic sets in when we’re nearly there. We’ve got it, and then we just trip over our own feet.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFormer England defender Gary Neville was also critical of the tactics and failure to get tight on Messi.Speaking on The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast, Neville said: “I can’t stand us losing like that.“The big problem for me was before he even made substitutions. We’d started to drop deep into the box before then. I’ve seen it so many times. How can you not just go and man mark him (Messi)?“We’ve been found wanting the minute we’ve played a tough team. I think that’s the closest you’re going to get to a World Cup final.”Ian Wright also felt Tuchel was too negative, with the former striker saying: “We’ve got players on the bench with pace, we needed to get out. He didn’t change anything in respect of us getting out.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Him putting players on to load up and be defensive, something that Messi wants. Messi wants to dribble through people and put the ball in the box and cause chaos.”Wright also took issue with Tuchel’s assertion after the game that he had no regrets.“Y