Tuchel is clinging to an outdated English style – he must let players take risks | Jacob Steinberg

Jul 20, 2026 - 16:10

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Tuchel is clinging to an outdated English style – he must let players take risks | Jacob Steinberg

Head coach should ditch a physical approach that has rarely worked and embrace England’s gifted ball players

Only England can claim the bronze medal at the World Cup by beating France in a 10-goal thriller and end up even more annoyed with the manager. Yet emotions are still running high after the collapse against Argentina last week and it is going to take more than winning a game low on jeopardy for the criticism of Thomas Tuchel to die down.

Hiring Tuchel was centred around the promise that he would make the difference in the big games. When that fell down, all that was left was anger. It exposed the core emptiness of the appointment, of a rich federation covering up the flaws in its coaching development by trying to game the system by throwing money at an expensive outsider.