In my lifetime I've seen my country win the WC and my club the FA Cup. I'm happy to have witnessed those events, even if only once. Maybe the scarcity of each makes the memories even sweeter. Last night's effort was an embarrassing reminder of how far each team has fallen behind for one reason or another. At least our club has made a fist of it. Not so, England.

Agreeing with Spit...

Saw someone mention Lee Carsley somewhere earlier. Everyone must have forgotten that tactical masterclass of attacking play against Greece 18 months ago

Wasn’t just a poor result though. Was utter capitulation from a winning position and exactly the thing he was employed to not do.

I don't see how reaching the semis is an over achievement when we were ranked #4 in the world and reached the semis with teams 1, 2 and 3. That's exactly how it should pan out. We are out because Tuchel bottled it.

All of a sudden some of our fans have gone all premier league and want a sacking after a poor result:-)

Nick, I was bored so asked chatgpt for its candidates and it came up with: Pep Guardiola Eddie Howe Mauricio Pochettino Michael Carrick Lee Carsley Unai Emery Graham Potter Sarina Wiegman

Very good glass half full assessment Nick. I agree.

Agree Nick, but that monkey 🐒 remains on our back. We just can't win those games against the big teams, France 2022, Spain 2024, Argentina 2026

After yesterday it is tempting to say that Tuchel is just a German version of Southgate. The issue, though, if you got rid of him is who else you would get in - there aren’t really any credible English candidates and the only international manager who would be an obvious upgrade would be Pep (and I am not sure how good he would be without an unlimited budget to bring in whoever he wanted). The good side is that England’s level at which they fail is now the World Cup semi final/ Euro Final, which is pretty good really compared with the past

Is anyone going to watch the bronze final against France? Hopefully poor Micah Richards who found out just before the game that his dad had died is on his way home

We had probably the 5th best squad in the competition. Not as good as the Argentinians at either football or cheating. So semi finals was a very slight over achievement. Congratulations to all.

Amen to all of that, Hash.

Anyway at least we can now forget about England for a couple of years and concentrate on the Dons as there may be some exciting or at least interesting times ahead with potential investment coming in etc

a4e - surely Middlesboro should be in the final?

Pretty inexcusable to shut up shop / park the bus in the 55th minute of a world cup semi final with just a one goal lead. I don't know what explanation Tuchel has come up with for it as i am actively avoiding any media about the game because i am too pissed off.

Up to 84 mins I was enjoying the match.,the ref was bad in the first half and the argies first goal scorer should have been sent off early for the punch to the back of an England players head.

How depressing last night was. Tuchel brought out his inner Ardley after an hour which was never going to work against a good (if dirty) team. Bizarre substitutions and packing the defence just invited balls back into the box. As well as two goals they hit the post twice.

Argentina should be thrown out of the tournament for this, and England reinstated…. [Link]

Probably thought we defended so well aginst Mexico with 10 men,that we could do it again with 11 men.

What do these tactics of Tuchel say he thinks of his players? What must they think? The only time teams set up to just sit back, deny space and defend is when they are either down to 10 men or are vastly inferior to the opposition. This was not AFCW away to Newcastle in the League Cup. England reached a World Cup semi-final against an average Argentina, who struggled past Egypt and Switzerland. Why play with fear? Why not try to get a second goal? Aside from being extremely boring to watch (how many thousands of pounds were tickets?), it seldom works for that length of time as it is very tiring, requires constant concentration and you are always one mistake, fluke or piece of genius away from it unravelling, with nowhere else to go as we found out tonight.

His outburst about ‘mentality’ came back to bite him on the arse

Tuchel has to be the scapegoat for this defeat. He parked the bus far too early and then added more defenders which seemed to cause confusion. He also took off our main outlet, Gordon. How he thought we'd survive 35 minutes plus added time playing like that, I just don't know. He got it wrong like he nearly did v Norway, when he also took off Gordon.

6M spot on again - now onto the domestic season… :)

The FA has the money to sack him and whoever extended his contract should be sacked at the same time.