Thomas Tuchel insists he should lead England into the next tournament, which is a home Euros, as he's forced to defend the tactics that cost them a World Cup final spot19:00, 16 Jul 2026Updated 19:03, 16 Jul 2026Thomas Tuchel insists he is “100 percent” the manager to take England forward. He has two years left on his £5m-a-year contract but is facing a huge backlash after England’s defeat to Argentina in the World Cup semi-final.‌England boss Tuchel oversaw a memorable campaign which got them into the last four but they blew a glorious chance to reach the final for the first time in 60 years.‌Former England captain Wayne Rooney led the criticism by slamming Tuchel’s substitutions and insisting his tactics were too negative and handed victory to Argentina.‌When asked whether he is the man to take England forward into Euro 2028, Tuchel said: “Yes, 100 percent. There is still enough to improve, and I am more than happy to do that.“I’ve loved it here. I loved every day. I said after the Norway game that I see a disconnect from what I see in training on a football level and within the games I think we can impose ourselves more on the ball. I still think we can show how good football players we are. I think that is still in us, as I see it in training and in every camp. And here also at the World Cup. I still feel there is an extra level that we need to conquer and need to step up to the next level to get the big prize.”Tuchel now faces the unenviable task of facing France in the third place play-off in Miami on Saturday which comes less than 72 hours after their heartbreaking defeat to bitter rivals Argentina.‌England are likely to make wholesale changes while Tuchel also plans to use the rest of the summer to reflect upon the World Cup campaign and also the reasons why they could not go one step further.Tuchel believes a huge part of the reason why England ran out of steam at the end was too many players joined up nursing knocks after a tough season with their clubs.‌Tuchel added: “As always you need a bit of time to digest, to reflect and to analyse. It just takes time and you have to bounce back. That is what sport demands. High level sports demands that of us. That’s basically the next step. We struggled physically as well, through the whole tournament playing in the heat, playing in the altitude, playing with a man down and so on. It cost us a lot in the end. We gave everything but it was not enough.”Tuchel has also defended his tactics against Argentina - but admitted they just could not live with Lionel Messi. Tuchel insisted his plan would have worked but said his players sat too deep, they were too passive and also claimed no team could have kept out Messi and Co.‌He said: “There were two wide wingers suddenly. Two very wide wingers that they didn’t have before and two strikers in teh middle and started to cross. So we went to a back five to be closer to the wingers, to not let them have 20 metres to them, but maybe only 10 and be more aggressive.“Still he had three centre-backs as we struggled to defend the crosses before. I thought if they start crossing now with Messi we will not close every left foot of Messi. Crosses will always come in so we will have three central defenders. And of course like in every structure it was important to stay active and push out and step out and fight duels. We just couldn’t.“I think in this moment my feeling is that no structure in the world could have helped us because we were too passive. We were not physical enough, we didn’t stop runs arriving in our box and the deliveries were then too good.”Article continues belowJoin our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.Content cannot be displayed without consent