Thomas Tuchel's FULL reaction to England's World Cup semi-final defeat

Thanks for staying and all for the ones who just came, very welcome again. We have the England manager Thomas Tuchel and the team media officer Andy Walker with us. Interpretation, as you know, English and Spanish. Please raise your hand and wait for the microphone. Can I get your verdict on the game as a whole and why you felt the team relinquished some of the initiative after going ahead? I think it was a very close match. I was happy the way we played it. Very close match, like I said, and we had the moment and took it to our advantage, went 1-0 up. I think that's what happens in these kind of matches that are totally even. I think at that point of the match it was also deserved, not undeserved, that we take our moment and go 1-0 up. Unfortunately and strangely enough, it marked a complete momentum switch in the game. Argentina played with more risk played with more rhythm, played with a feeling maybe that they have nothing to lose anymore, which freed them up and hold us back because we obviously played suddenly with a feeling that we have a lot to lose. So we dropped immediately back into a deep block, which is also not a problem, but we struggled to stay active in that deep block and we struggled to defend crosses in the deep block and we struggled to get physical on the runners into the box. Argentina then made changes with four strikers, wide wingers, two strikers in the middle, so we tried to adapt to that in a back five, which is a wider structure, and to stop, to have a shorter distance to the players that took the crosses. But it was difficult for us. We could not find any duels, we could not find any ball possession anymore and couldn't get the momentum back at all and they took advantage of that and won the game. Do you think the best team wins the game? Like I said, I think it was a total even game. The story is always told from the back, so if you see the last half an hour, it was deserved for Argentina. If you see the first 55 minutes, I think it's quite deserved that we are 1-0 up. Like I said, I think it's two completely different matches. It's until the goal and then after the goal. But in these moments, the harder and the bigger the defeat and the bigger the occasion, the more pain you feel, of course. But it's important, first of all, that you gave everything, which we did, to respect the opponent and the achievement of the opponent and the win of the opponent. This is how sports is. And the second, which we also do, and the second one is then to bounce back. Like always, show a reaction, learn from it. It's what we have to do in the next month. Thomas, in this tournament we've praised your decisions a lot and a lot of people have said they've been what have got us here a lot of the time. Tonight there's a lot of criticism about your decisions, particularly the substitutions. Do you believe you got it wrong? No, I believe that's just the nature of the game. As soon as you lose you get criticised, that's just what it is. You get criticised after, no-one knows what would have happened if we made different decisions. So it makes no sense to engage in that and lose my head. I'm responsible for them, I took them, so I take the criticism, that's just the way it is. You've spoken a lot at this tournament about the mentality of the players, but tonight we've seen it seems to be a very English thing that we get to the latter stages of tournaments, we get the first goal and then we defend. Do you think there is a problem or do you think it's just a football situation? I love to see these things in a football matter and through football classes. So first of all I always think it's solvable on the football field. I don't believe so much in an English thing, in a curse or whatever, or in history repeating itself in these moments. It's just different coaches, different players, different situations, different opponents. So I think basically I believe in the football thing, which for me still as a football coach costs us today because I think we were just not active enough in any structure. We were not active enough in our 4-4-2 and we were not active enough later in a 5-3-2 and not in a 5-4-1. Active meaning we didn't find any duels anymore, we didn't find any activity anymore. We couldn't get close anymore to play on the ball, that's why we struggled to defend the crosses. The positioning in the box was better then because we had three central defenders but we didn't stop the runners into the box. We were not physical enough in the second line. I still think you can defend active in a 4-4-2, you can defend active in any formation, you can get ball possession in any formation. We struggled to stay active, we could not get any ball possession to escape the pressure and to turn the momentum around. So at the moment I think in it as a football matter and I'm a part of that and try to solve it from the sideline. I'm sad and upset for my players of course because we were close, it's just what it is at the moment. Argentina had its back against the wall, against Cabo Verde, Egipto, Switzerland. Why does it seem that Argentina has always an extra life and what role do you think the Argentine crowd played at the game? Well the support is outstanding, it felt almost like an away game of course but we knew that and we matched it and I think it was, like I said from us, a performance that we can be proud of. It was a big occasion, it was a big opponent. We tried to eliminate the world champions, we tried to eliminate an experienced group of players in tournament football. I think that they play their best basically when they go behind, when they take a lot of risk. You see the full quality on the ball and they have a lot of ball possession, go through every gap and they're just very, very competitive. We are also but today they took advantage of the situation that they basically... I feel that they had nothing to lose anymore so they invested more, they took a lot of risks and brought the best out in them to our disadvantage. Sheila Garcia from Colombia, Wii Sports, thank you, it's a pleasure. Why coaches, it's so difficult for the last opponents of Argentina to keep this advantage when you were up of course because they were suffering and then they turned the trend all over and then they got the advantage and once again why? Can the opponents not keep up after this World Cup? Are you still going to remain as the head coach of England after this World Cup as well? First of all the World Cup is not over, it's still a match to play. We're not looking so much forward to it but it's still a match to play and then of course we keep on going for contract until the home Euros and I'm looking forward to that. Even now it's difficult to look that far ahead. I think in the culture basically of the Argentinian team, of South American teams, ball possession plays a crucial role. Ball possession taught from a young, young age and it's in the DNA and it demands a lot of self-confidence, natural self-confidence to always want the ball, to always be in the gaps, to always define yourself through the ball possession. So I think that's then a crucial thing, to show the courage to take the ball away from these teams in the crucial moment when you're under pressure. You need to get every little decision right, you need to get the angle, the body positions right, you need to get your decision-making right and the little two against one, three against two is to really overcome the first line of pressure, to not be intimidated, to not be physically then also bullied because Argentina has of course in their culture this mix between being very physical and also strong on the ball. But listen, it's not the first time like sometimes when you concede it frees something up in you and you play with more freedom, you play with the mindset that you have nothing to lose anymore because you're anyway down and you regain this momentum. This is what happened today. It takes a lot physically and mentally and a lot of football courage to get out of this. We couldn't do it, we wanted to do it for sure, there's no doubt that the players gave everything, they gave their very best. You could see like that we were in moments also tired, tired, struggling from players being sick, injured, whatever. So yeah, it was a mix of that and that's why we struggled and got punished. How on earth do you raise yourself and the players for Saturday, the match I guess nobody wants and what was your message to the players in the dressing room because it feels like a missed opportunity once again? Of course you have to wait four years to get it back and it's in itself an achievement. Of course it's a semi-final, a lot of big football nations are eliminated before the semi-final. So yeah, it is an achievement, no one wants to hear that at the moment, me neither because we demand the most of ourselves. That's just the nature of being competitive, the nature of being so competitive also, you said it right, puts the next game into perspective. Nobody of these players, nobody of French players wants to play for this match. They want to play in the final, we gave everything to be in the final. Everyone plays to win the World Cup but it is what it is. We have a day less to recover but we will do it professionally of course. I didn't say a lot, everything you say in the dressing room can take away the pain or the disappointment. We all know these moments so I said let's take it with respect, let's digest it first. Accept that we gave everything, that is a big part in a defeat. Did we do everything to arrive in this semi-final? Did we give everything? 100 per cent we did and I think the fans will realise that and do realise that. The second of all is to bounce back, to react. That's what you have to do on the highest level in sports, that's what is demanded and what we will do.