Tuchel did not deliver, but his time with England is not up - Shearer

Published 12 minutes ago Like many people, my prediction before this World Cup started was that England would not get further than the last four - but Thomas Tuchel was supposed to prove us all wrong. Tuchel was hired to win this tournament for England - he said so himself when he took charge of the Three Lions in January 2025. He was meant to make the difference in the biggest games, to get us past the semi-finals and get us over the line in finals, the times when we have fallen so agonisingly short in recent years. That did not happen in Wednesday's 2-1 defeat by Argentina . He got things wrong with the way we retreated after scoring and his substitutions did not help. It was extremely frustrating to watch, especially because I felt we had such a good chance of reaching our first World Cup final in 60 years. We expected more - I know I did - but just because Tuchel did not deliver does not mean his time should be up. Some England players disappointed at tactics as Tuchel questions team's DNA Published 15 hours ago How coach-on-pitch Messi undid England's tactics on the fly Published 1 day ago From Southgate to Tuchel - has anything changed? Published 17 hours ago Give Tuchel time to reflect To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, Argentina shatter England's World Cup dreams in semi-final Tuchel's original contract only lasted until this summer, but he signed a two-year extension in February and is going to lead us into the 2028 European Championship, which England will co-host. I don't think he is naive enough not to realise that what has happened at this tournament is going to increase the scrutiny on him going forward, and I don't believe any of the criticism he has faced will faze him either. Tuchel is experienced enough and has been successful enough to know how the game works - and because of that he will know his methods will now be questioned even more going forward. One of the reasons for that is because we never got to see the England performance that he promised us at this World Cup. The way Argentina were chasing the game in the final half-hour was meant to suit his team's playing style. We were up against really top-class opposition - they are world champions for a reason - and had heard lots of times that England would be better when teams like that opened up against us rather than played in the low block we often faced earlier in the tournament. But we never saw it. Instead, Tuchel went very early with what has worked for him at this tournament in terms of going defensive, like we did with 10 men against Mexico or for the last few minutes against Norway - and that is what has cost us a place in the final. When you give that much possession away to a very good team for so long, and give that much freedom to the little genius Lionel Messi, then he is going to cause damage - and he did. Tuchel said straight after losing the semi-final that he did not regret his ap