Michael Owen slams Tuchel after England's loss against Argentina

SNTV
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Jul 16, 2026
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedThe speaker expresses deep frustration over England's exit from the World Cup, arguing that the team \"gave the game away\" to Argentina through a negative mentality and poor managerial decisions. He contrasts England's fear-based defensive approach with Spain's brave, possession-based style, suggesting a systemic national issue with fearing failure.
You know, after two or three World Cups, maybe in eight years, we're going to be saying amazing.
So obviously got in early this morning, so I'm looking forward to seeing it over the next few days.
In 10 years, and they will score 20 goals in the World Cups.
So, teams playing on a world stage will then give aspirational thoughts.
Still very, very annoyed, very frustrated.
I think we gave the game away.
I don't think Argentina beat us.
I think we gave it them.
In the end, they could have won 4-1 or 5-1 or something.
They hit the post.
But after an hour, we're in total control.
We're 1-0 up.
All we have to do is watch Spain the night before and see what happens when you're 1-0 up.
Keep playing.
Keep the ball.
Stay brave.
Stay confident.
Just keep the ball.
And we just panic and we're scared of losing.
And then even our manager makes mistakes, throws on three defenders and takes off attacking players.
Totally hands the initiative to Argentina.
We gave them that game.
Our problem was against Mexico.
We did exactly the same.
We're in total control.
We're two goals ahead.
And we go all negative and we think this is great football.
This is brave football defending our box.
It's not.
What Spain did last night is brave football.
When you're playing against a great team and you're 1-0 up and you continue to keep the ball under the maximum pressure.
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.
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.
That's like I can get my local pub team to do that.
And that's where we lost the tournament is celebrating beating Mexico the way we did.
It was the wrong way.
And the problem is as a player, once that happens, it's in your mind, ah, we won.
Everybody thinks we're great.
And we did it 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 do you think message that sends to Argentina?
Harry Kane's been brilliant.
He has had a great tournament.
This lies squarely on the manager's decisions and our mentality as a nation because it's not the first time we've done it.
We did it in my era.
I scored against Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
They were down to 10 men like we were against Mexico.
And what happened?
We didn't get a kick.
Brazil played us off the park with 10 men, beat us 2-1.
We do it all the time.
I scored against Portugal in the quarterfinals of the Euros.
Again, what do we do?
Okay, Wayne Rooney gets injured, but we still retreat.
We still let all the teams in.
It's a British mentality thing where we are so scared of losing.
We're so fearful of failure that we just...
And we got the players.
There's nothing wrong with our team.
There's nothing wrong with Selec.
Nothing wrong with anything.
It's purely mentality.
Argentina have had quite a lucky path through to the semifinals.
They made hard work of Cape Verde.
They made hard work of Egypt.
They're scoring last-minute goals.
They scored last-minute goals against England.
We probably let them through as opposed to them beating us.
I don't think they've been very impressive throughout the tournament, whereas Spain are impressive.
I mean, that performance against France was pure class.
That was a serious performance against a great opponent.
I think Spain are a lot better than Argentina.
I expect them to win the World Cup, and deservedly so.
