'Rubbish!' - Michael Owen tears into Thomas Tuchel's 'pub team' approach vs Argentina after England crash out of 2026 World Cup

In a brutal assessment of England's performance in Atlanta, Owen did not hold back when discussing Tuchel’s tactical decisions. Despite Anthony Gordon giving England an early lead, the team retreated into a heavily defensive shell, a move Owen believes was a fundamental error in judgement from the dugout.

In comments highlighted by BBC Sport, the former Liverpool and Real Madrid forward said: "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. 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. I can get my local pub team to do that."

The tactical shift began to take shape midway through the second half when Tuchel opted to protect the 1-0 lead by introducing three defenders. This defensive-minded approach surrendered all momentum to the reigning world champions, allowing Argentina to dominate possession and eventually find the goals they needed to progress.

Owen feels that these instructions sent the wrong message to both the English players and the opposition. By inviting pressure, England essentially handed the keys of the game to Lionel Messi, who took full advantage of the space and time afforded to him in the final third of the pitch.

England had used a similar gritty strategy to overcome Mexico in the round of 16, playing most of that match with ten men after Jarell Quansah was sent off. However, Owen argues that the praise received for that performance gave the squad a false sense of security regarding negative tactics.

“That’s where we lost the tournament, celebrating beating Mexico the way we did,” Owen continued. “It was the wrong way. The problem is, as a player, once that’s in your mind, it's like, Ah we won. Everybody thinks we’re great, and we did it by 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 message do you think that sends to Argentina?”

England defender Marc Guehi also expressed his frustration with the team's decision to retreat after taking the lead against Argentina, arguing that the Three Lions should have continued pushing forward instead of trying to protect their advantage.

"Once we went 1-0 up, we seemed to just try and hold on, which at this level is just not enough, so I'm gutted." He added: "We should have carried on. We should have carried on pushing. It kind of felt like we scored, and then the mentality was to go back and defend."