England legend Michael Owen has blasted Thomas Tuchel after the Three Lions’ heartbreaking 2-1 World Cup semi-final exit to Argentina. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
Describing Tuchel’s defensive approach as rubbish and the complete opposite of brave, Owen compared the German manager’s ultra-defensive tactics to those of a local pub team.
Michael added that the UCL winner’s changes sent the wrong message to both the English players and the opposition.
His words, “Going back and dropping back and putting 11 men in your own box and just kicking it as hard as you can and heading it out and whatever, and taking a ball in the face, people think that’s brave. It’s not. It’s quite the opposite. It’s quite the opposite.
Football isn’t about getting a ball in the nose and getting blood and everyone saying, Yeah that’s fantastic, yeah look how brave we are. That’s rubbish. I can get my local pub team to do that.
That’s where we lost the tournament, celebrating beating Mexico the way we did. It was the wrong way. The problem is, as a player, once that’s in your mind, it’s like, Ah we won. Everybody thinks we’re great, and we did it by doing this.
Subconsciously, as soon as you go 1-0 up now, what do you think we’re going to think? What do you think the players are going to think? And then the manager brings on three defenders. What message do you think that sends to Argentina?”
