Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has blasted Thomas Tuchel following the Three Lions’ devastating World Cup semi-final exit against Argentina. Recall that the German tactician’s decision to retreat into a defensive shell backfired spectacularly as late goals from Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez turned a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 defeat.
Stressing that Tuchel’s changes made the attackers lose belief, Rooney stated that going a goal up and sacrificing attacking football was a sign that the German was panicking.
Wayne added that no manager should willingly give the GOAT of football that much time and space around his box.
His words, “The decisions Thomas Tuchel has made, we have to be honest, have cost us tonight.
If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up and you see the changes which the manager’s making, you’re losing belief, there’s only so many times you can get away with it.
Then you start thinking, ‘oh no, we’re going to sit back for this long, how are we going to get through this?’ It’s a panic, it’s a real panic.
You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the ball and surrender any opportunity of going to try and get the second goal, because that’s what you want to do.
If you let players of that quality have the ball around your penalty box, sooner or later they’re going to score.”
