Thomas Tuchel has ‘no regrets’ over England tactics in World Cup semi-final

Under-fire Thomas Tuchel still has “no regrets” about his decisions in England’s painful World Cup semi-final loss to Argentina and defiantly claimed fan opinion will not impact how he views his future.

The nation had been dreaming of a first men’s World Cup final since lifting the trophy since 1966 but are now in the midst of an uncomfortable examination of all too familiar shortcomings.

Gareth Southgate’s successor was brought in to turn nearly men into trophy winners, but England stumbled after taking a 55th-minute lead on Wednesday and Argentina capitalised in a chaotic late 2-1 turnaround.

The statistics are as bleak as the second half was to watch, but Tuchel stuck to his guns ahead of Saturday’s unwanted bronze medal match against France, having had 48 hours to stew on the defeat.

“I view them in the same way,” the England boss said when asked if his view on the performance had changed. “I view them in the same way that we were too passive, we got too passive.

“If you are asking if I regret my decision, if this is the question then, no, I don’t regret my decisions because I felt that we’d become too passive.

“I felt that the momentum switches in the match and I tried to help my team. I tried to help, I tried to support.

“I took several decisions trusting my instinct, my intuition, my experience, trusting my competitiveness, and I took the decision in order to help the team and get the result.

“We didn’t get the result, so I take, of course, the responsibility for these decisions but the decisions are made under stress, the decisions are made in-game. This is in-game life, live coaching.

“I would regret if I didn’t help. I would regret if we didn’t react. But I have no regrets over the decision itself.”

That answer