What do you make of England’s performance in the World Cup?

[MPH]

I’m very interested to know other people’s opinions on how we did?
 

Personally, I’m conflicted 
 

in some ways, I feel like Tuchel is still trying to undo 8 years of Southgate-ball. But on the other hand, he’s made some great decisions and had some good gameplay tactics, made some good subs… but that decision to go so defensive so soon after we scored against Argentina feels almost unforgivable. It cost us a place in the final. But we were incredible against France!

 

Bellingham  whilst being world class before the tournament, finished it in the top 5 world- elite  players. Just sensational . 
 

Djed Spence… his last 3-4 games… where did that come from!? Wow. Wow. Wow. He was sensational against France! Man of the Match for some! Was being phased out of the spurs team before the World Cup.. he’s got an interesting summer ahead of him..

 

 

Any other highlights you can think of?

[Dr Marco]

Good tournament

Bottled it on the most important game though thanks to Tuchel's wrong tactics

[spacemunky]

Still better than during the 'golden' era, but also still guilty of being just not quite.

 

Glad it ended on a positive.

 

 

[StanSP]

In some ways, refreshing. Bellingham and Kane were a formidable attacking partnership. 

 

Lots were slating inclusion of Spence pre-tournament but he played superbly throughout. Anderson similarly. 

 

Tuchel undid all his own and the teams hard work in that 2nd half vs Argentina. I don't recall a world cup or an international tournament for a long time where there seemed to be a genuine clamour that England could legitimately win the trophy and be deserving of it. Feel like this was our best chance to at least get to a final at least, which I guess speaks volumes. 

 

I don't mind Tuchel. He's clearly got something about him to get that squad playing for him. Some questionable decisions but overall and looking at the bigger picture, not as bad as perhaps some expected. 

 

Be interesting if he stays for Euro 2028 and if Kane decides to not be in the squad. He quite clearly flagged in last couple of games so needs to be managed if he does stick around, but it begs the question how would England set up without him... 

[fox_up_north]

I expected us to go out against Mexico and we didn't. Anything after that was a bonus. 

 

Being top 5 in the world is a great achievement and we're one of only 8 winners. Italy haven't even qualified for years. 

 

I sort of view it similar to us finishing 5th in prem. From an outside view, amazing achievement but it's the way we got there that makes me grumble. 

 

Losing 2-1 in a hard fought game against Argentina where it took a bit of absolute magic from Messi to win it - fair enough. Conceding free headers when you've got 5 defenders - shocking.  

[Suzie the Fox]

On the whole it was decent, but I'm still salty about losing to the Argies. 

 

Bellingham & Spence best players in there own way, for England in the tournament. (imo)

 

Still happy for Tuchel to stay and take us into the Euros.  

[Finnegan]

You were a managerial brain fart away from being deserved finalists. You've done well but I imagine you're left hoping Tuchel learns from the mistake. Or even acknowledges he made one in the first place. 

 

I thought there were something very Brendan Rodgers about both the decision to do it in the first place and then the denial of blame after. 

 

[FoxesWalk]

2 hours ago, MPH said:

I’m very interested to know other people’s opinions on how we did?
 

Personally, I’m conflicted 
 

in some ways, I feel like Tuchel is still trying to undo 8 years of Southgate-ball. But on the other hand, he’s made some great decisions and had some good gameplay tactics, made some good subs… but that decision to go so defensive so soon after we scored against Argentina feels almost unforgivable. It cost us a place in the final. But we were incredible against France!

 

Bellingham  whilst being world class before the tournament, finished it in the top 5 world- elite  players. Just sensational . 
 

Djed Spence… his last 3-4 games… where did that come from!? Wow. Wow. Wow. He was sensational against France! Man of the Match for some! Was being phased out of the spurs team before the World Cup.. he’s got an interesting summer ahead of him..

 

 

Any other highlights you can think of?

My main complaint is we still don’t have an identity, which is something Tuchel said he would try to bring to the team. If we do have an identity, it’s that we are still the spurs of international football, bottling leads. 
 

Spain will keep the ball, Argentina will commit lots of small niggly fouls to break up play. England… still not really sure what we are. He does have a clear idea for the team I think, with the wide rotating triangles, but we too rarely saw it in this competition, partially due to the number of teams playing low blocks in fairness.

 

Need to get a sports psychologist in though and get the players less afraid of failure. England teams have been doing the same thing for decades now, and it’s arguably worse now with proliferation of social media and the amount of attention on English football at all time highs. 

Edited 21 hours ago by FoxesWalk

[The Horse's Mouth]

He’s gotta go 

[MattFox]

Looks better on paper than it actually was

 

Made really hard work of the Congo and struggled against Norway

 

Mexico was great but if it was in any other stadium we should be beating them easily 

 

The last 30 minutes against Argentina was so bad you can only laugh

[Dr Marco]

2 minutes ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

He’s gotta go 

PEP IN !

[MattFox]

Seeing people doing a 360 on Tuchel cause of the third place game is embarrassing btw

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, MattFox said:

Seeing people doing a 360 on Tuchel cause of the third place game is embarrassing btw

 

 

 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

28 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

You were a managerial brain fart away from being deserved finalists. You've done well but I imagine you're left hoping Tuchel learns from the mistake. Or even acknowledges he made one in the first place. 

 

I thought there were something very Brendan Rodgers about both the decision to do it in the first place and then the denial of blame after. 

 

 

I'm on the fence with him but he'd get a lot of goodwill back by simply putting his hands up and conceding he ****ed it on Wednesday.

 

I found it annoying he seemed to pin a lot of the failure on some kind of inherent "England DNA" issue. You get different players every cycle, some of this squad play (and play well) for some of the biggest clubs in the world and are now moving for 9 figure sums. Tuchel is paid handsomely enough that simply blaming some sort of mythical "DNA" doesn't really wash.

[Bert]

I’d give it a 7/10. 
 

A solid start against Croatia which left us all feeling fairly positive, followed by 2 frustrating games after but winning the group unbeaten nonetheless. 
 

Came up against a keeper on crack in the Rof32 and did well to come back after going 1-0 down early enough against a team that were a lot more solid than a lot of people thought. 
 

Mexico, I feel like that was our final. With everything that pre game was stacked against us, an hour delay, defending for our lives with 10 men for 35 minutes was absolutely great to see. 
 

Norway we were perhaps a bit lucky but an individual has pulled us through in a game where both teams were quiet evenly matched - our tournament experience perhaps giving us the upper hand in the end. 
 

The semi, as a daft as it sounds we perhaps scored too early. Well in control until we scored then we just shit our pants. 
 

Nice to end the tournament with a fun game to watch and a bronze medal for the team but ultimately we could and should be playing tonight, had game management and tactical decisions been better against Argentina. 
 

We’ve had some great moments as a team and personally it’s been great to watch it with my lad who will remember this tournament as his first World Cup memory. 

[whoareyaaa]

Done well on the whole although the manager has ****ed it and won't admit it which might be a problem.

 

Bellingham has been class but him and Kane needed subbing and had ran out of steem against Argentina, Saka and Rashford even Watkins should have been used more 

 

Diffrerent tatctics should have seen us in the final imo, Soon as Messi was pulling the strings it was over, both goals could have been avoided.

Edited 20 hours ago by whoareyaaa

[Jattdogg]

The Argentina game was almost unforgivable for me. Up until that point, we did well and the mexico game was fantastic for holding on.

 

If his game plan for semis or finals is to play defensive, then we won't ever win with him.

 

I can't say he doesn't deserve a chance because he has got us to this point.

 

It's like when  you think you really want something,  you get it and then after a few days you think mehhhhh sure.

 

I can't be upset if he stays, I won't be upset if he doesn't.  No idea what to think.

 

 

[Blarmy]

Can’t get past the Argentina game unfortunately. Nothing else really matters if we are capable of collapsing like that. 

[STEVIE B]

Probably 7/10. Nothing special. 

Beat the teams that we should've done....just & lost to an average, streetwise Argentina side, by bottling it, which is what we do all too often.

Edited 20 hours ago by STEVIE B

[spacemunky]

I don't recall playing Argentina.

 

I remember playing Mexico, Norway and France.

[Muzzy_no7]

Yeah 6.5-7 out of 10.

 

Missed opportunity but we did overcome some obstacles.

 

Squad selection at the time I thought was 3-4 players wrong and with hindsight I still think the same. 
 

Some players looked absolutely done after the Mexico game. 
 

2018- 4th in WC.

 

2020(1)- runner up Euros

 

2022- QF knocked out by the best team while playing well.

 

2024- Euro’s runners up again.

 

2026- 3rd in WC.

 

Impressive run but should’ve been more.

[StanSP]

That Mexico game was epic. One of the best I've ever watched in my lifetime. 

[Samilktray]

2 minutes ago, StanSP said:

That Mexico game was epic. One of the best I've ever watched in my lifetime. 

Yeah I’m really struggling with the idea of going back to club football after that. It was unbelievable 

[StanSP]

2 minutes ago, Samilktray said:

Yeah I’m really struggling with the idea of going back to club football after that. It was unbelievable 

Not just any club football. Russell Martin's club football... 

[Reynaldo]

I think we just did enough to get through every game up to the semi final without actually looking any good.  And then we did the normal England thing and crumbled as soon as we came up against anyone decent.

 

The France game, whilst entertaining means absolutely nothing as it was a glorified friendly.

 

So we got about as far as we should of gotten in terms of rankings, but our overall performances were for the most part, shocking.  One half against Croatia aside, I dont think there was ever one moment where I thought we wouldnt come unstuck at the first real test, and we did.