Henry makes Rashford claim after England’s loss vs Argentina – ‘what Tuchel did wasn’t bad’

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16 July 2026

Thierry Henry has made a claim about

Marcus Rashford

following England’s loss to

Argentina

in the

World Cup

semi-finals.

With

England

boss Thomas Tuchel preferring

Anthony Gordon

Rashford

had a limited involvement during the knockout stages at the

Tuchel started Gordon in the

semi-final against

, and he opened the scoring with a smart finish after 55 minutes following a great cross by Morgan Rogers.

Gordon was otherwise pretty ineffective in the match, and he was withdrawn after 72 minutes with Tuchel going all-out defensive in an attempt to keep

at bay, though this backfired.

Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez scored in the game’s latter stages to turn the match around, and Rashford was only brought on deep into stoppage time.”

Rashford will no doubt feel disappointed at his limited involvement, but Henry has claimed that he meant to come on before Gordon scored.

“When you’re on the bench as a coach, things happen so quickly,” Henry told FOX Sports.

“We need to analyse something because

was supposed to come on just before

scored.

“After Gordon scores then suddenly you go into a back-five which seemed too early. Then they lose Reece James and they bring on Nico O’Reilly but he’s playing on the wing.

“Boom –

score and then where do you go with that formation? Then boom they score again and now you need to try and bring on guys to score yourselves.”

Henry has also explained that Tuchel’s negative approach “wasn’t bad”, though there was an issue with this method.

“It’s not easy but I’ll repeat again, they went into a back-five too early. It’s not easy on the bench but they went defensive too early – you don’t beat that team [Argentina] like that,” Henry added.

“So, Thomas Tuchel, what he did wasn’t bad. They just did it too early. I think that

went into a back five too early for my liking, giving them the ball.

“I’m not saying that they thought they won the game. It’s not true. But they thought they had to defend the lead a tiny bit too early.

“After that, if you’re

, you’re going to throw strikers and put [them] in the box.

“One thing that [Argentina manager Lionel] Scaloni did exactly the same against Switzerland and Egypt, he put Lionel Messi on the right – not in the middle, into traffic.

“You can discuss this with a million coaches [but] I have to make a decision on the pitch. I analysed the match and I did it a certain way so that’s my responsibility.

“In the moment, no regrets. The team gave everything and we were very, very close. We deserved to be up 1-0.

“We played one of our better matches, maybe our best match in the circumstances. The team was top, we couldn’t get over the line but no regrets.”

“But he put him on the right. They attracted him to the right of the opposition, to give him the ball in a [one-on-one situation] to go back to his left and cross. And actually, he went on his right to cross.

“So, what I’m saying is, they’re the world champion for a reason.”

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