Rooney accuses Tuchel of 'surrender' as England boss slammed for World Cup exit

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Wayne Rooney called out England head coach Thomas Tuchel for 'surrendering' after

taking the lead in their World Cup semi-final defeat

to

Argentina

. The former England captain was left unhappy with how the team became increasingly defensive after Anthony Gordon's goal put them ahead in Atlanta.

Ezri Konsa came on for the goalscorer after the second-half hydration break, with Dan Burn and Nico O'Reilly later replacing

Reece James

and

Declan Rice

. Two minutes after the double change, Enzo Fernandez equalised.

Burn had previously come on to see out games against

Mexico

Norway

. However,

it did not work out against Argentina

with Lautaro Martinez scoring a late winner.

Rooney said on

BBC

One: "It's a panic, it's a real panic. You can't go a goal up and then surrender. Surrender the ball and surrender any opportunity of trying to get the second goal. You want to be on the front foot when the pressure is on Argentina to get back in the game."

He added: "If you’re on that pitch, go 1-0 up and then see the changes the manager is making…you are losing belief. There's only so many times you can get away with it. You start thinking 'we're going to sit back, how are we going to get through this?'"

Rooney explained: "We got ourselves in such a good position, and then we didn't know what to do. We sat back, we allowed them to come onto us. They were creating a number of chances, then we cracked. Really disappointed.

He added: "These fans have spent a lot of money to be out here. I expected more in this game. Argentina are the

world

champions. We knew it was going to be the difference. The changes we made didn't help us. Devastated. Sometimes you need a bit of luck to win these tournaments."

The pundit then concluded: "Once we got the first goal, we didn't look to go for the second goal.

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"For the players, and for me, Thomas Tuchel made the decision, and when you make the decision, it is a gamble. The gamble he made was to go with five at the back, which allowed them to dictate the game.

"The decisions Thomas Tuchel made, we have to be honest, have cost us tonight."

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