Wayne Rooney slams Thomas Tuchel changes that made England 'lose belief' in World Cup exit

Tuchel’s late changes backfired (Picture: FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Wayne Rooney

has slammed

Thomas Tuchel

’s substitutions in their

World Cup

semi-final defeat against Argentina, insisting they caused the team to ‘lose belief.’

The Three Lions were on the cusp of reaching their first World Cup final in 60 years thanks to

Anthony Gordon

’s 55

minute strike in Atlanta.

But two late goals from Argentina saw them fall to a heart-breaking 2-1 defeat

with Lionel Messi and co. heading back to the final to defend their crown.

Desperate to hold onto the lead, Tuchel made changes with

Ezri Konsa

replacing goal scorer Gordon after 72 minutes.

Declan Rice

followed 10 minutes later, replaced by Nico O’Reilly with

Reece James

also coming off for Dan Burn.

While

England

’s run to the final was helped by some outstanding rearguard displays against Mexico and Norway, the changes invited pressure from Argentina with no outlet further up the pitch to ease it. Enzo Fernandez equalised with a wonderful strike from range before Lautaro Martinez scored the winner in injury time.

Former England captain Rooney was critical of Tuchel’s changes, telling BBC1: ‘If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up, and you see the changes that the manager is making, you’re losing belief.

‘And you’re thinking there’s only so many times we are going to get away with it. The changes we made didn’t help us.’

He added: ‘It’s a panic, a real panic, you can’t go a goal up and then surrender the ball, surrender any opportunity to try to get the second goal, that’s what you want to do, you want to be on the front foot, the pressure is on Argentina to get back in the game, if you go and put pressure on the ball, put tackles in, make runs in behind, they’ll feel it.

More heartbreak for England (Picture:Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

‘If you let players with that quality have the ball around your penalty box, sooner or later they’re going to score.’

Joe Hart meanwhile suggested Tuchel’s predecessor Gareth Southgate would have been met with fierce criticism for making the same decisions, believing the England boss realised his side ‘could no longer land any punches’ on Argentina.

‘I think Gareth Southgate will be at home watching this game, he took a lot of criticism when it came to the big moments with England,’ Hart said.

Argentina are back in the final to defend their crown (Picture: 2026 Getty Images)

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