Everyone has a view on England’s performance last night, so I wanted to offer mine — as a coach, and from the modest perspective of someone with a UEFA B licence.

For context, I once faced a dilemma similar to the one Thomas Tuchel had against Argentina last night — though admittedly not in a World Cup semi-final!

 

A while back, I managed a team in a fixture that effectively came after the season had ended — a match neither club really wanted to play, with players already booked for holidays and other commitments. We could only get nine players to travel for the midweek replay. The league had insisted it go ahead because the original match had been abandoned in the 94th minute after a player broke his leg. Both sides were safely mid-table, with no chance of moving up or down, and the referee had asked whether we were happy to abandon the game and keep the score as it stood, which both clubs accepted. Even so, we turned up for the replay and found that our opponents, a reserve side, had brought in several first-team players to cover their absences.

 

We carried on, nine against eleven, and with ten minutes remaining we were leading 3–2. Then disaster struck: our goalkeeper was injured and had to come off, an outfield player went in goal, and we were suddenly down to eight against eleven.

Almost immediately, our quick striker — already on two goals and causing their defence problems all evening — offered to drop back and help us defend.

I told him not to. Instead, I asked him to stay high and be ready for the long ball out of defence, because they were still keeping three defenders back to mark him.

That gave us an outlet whenever pressure built. At one point it worked perfectly: the ball cleared their defence, and “Mr Speedy” raced beyond the home back line — who were desperate to push up and launch high balls into the box — before scoring to make it 4–2.

Even then, I had to tell him to go for goal rather than head to the corner to run down the clock, because he was one-on-one with the keeper.

That two-goal cushion took the fight out of our opponents, and from there we saw the game out comfortably to win 4–2.

 

So, how does this relate to England v Argentina?

When you sit too deep, even good organisation can be undone by a long-range shot, a loose ball in the box, or a single chaotic moment.

So what did Thomas Tuchel do, and what would I have done?

I’m not claiming to be a better coach than Tuchel — I have the benefit of hindsight — but I was calling for this during the game

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      Thomas Tuchel Decision                                                           Tim Richens Decision

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*Replaced Gordon with Konsa                              *Replaced Gordon with Saka (& moved Rogers to the left)

*Replaced James & Rice with Burn & O’Reilly   *Keep things as they were and push Rice & Anderson 

                                                                                      closer to McAllister & Fernandez

*Defended deep with 7 defenders                          *Kept Saka & Rogers high and let Kane drop, centrally

*Hoof the ball long to clear it and make                *Keep the ball to relieve pressure

Argentina “start again”                                           

*Two desperate subs – Two attackers on for       *Swapped Rogers for a fit Rashford to keep them

two defenders (too little time to organise and       aware of the breakaway speed

understand positions)                                                If Rice WAS too tired, I would have brought

                                                                                        on Kobbie Mainoo to add energy to the midfield

 

I have assumed that Rice & James were fit to continue, as this would have influenced ny thinking obviously!

 

Also, if we were 2-1 down, I’d have keep the shape but pushed Burn forward, told Kane to stay high and bombed their box with crosses!!

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