Thomas Tuchel was appointed England manager in January 2025 and has a contract through to Euro 2028. England head coach Thomas Tuchel has defended his tactical decisions during the World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina in a tense news conference.

Addressing the media before Saturday's third-place play-off against France in Miami, Tuchel said "if you need someone to blame, I take the responsibility." But the German head coach insisted he had no regrets and said he and his team felt the pain most of all, describing it as the "scar we carry now".

England were minutes away from reaching their first men's World Cup final for 60 years. But a 1-0 lead agonisingly turned to a 2-1 defeat in the closing stages as England's defence got deeper and deeper under constant pressure from the brilliance and perseverance of Lionel Messi's world champions.

During the news conference, Tuchel also said:

• England's team spirit should not be questioned, but his side became "too passive" in the latter stages.
• There is a gap to the top teams, and he will not stop trying to close it.
• The Mexico and Norway games had an impact by taking a lot physically out of the players.
• Captain Harry Kane ended up so deep because "that's what you do if you defend in a block."

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Asked about how he viewed the last 35 minutes of the game having had time to reflect, Tuchel said he felt "the same way - that we were too passive".

"If you're asking if I regret my decision, if this is the question, then I don't regret my decisions," he added. "I felt that the momentum switches in the match. And I tried to help my team..."

"I took several decisions, trusting my instinct, my intuition, my experience, trusting my competitiveness, and I took the decision in order to help the team and get the result. We didn't get the result."

"So I take, of course, the responsibility and for these decisions. I would regret if I didn't help. I would regret if we didn't react."

Tuchel said he was not willing to engage "in this kind of game" over who is to blame. "No problem," he said. "This is the deal that you sign up for, but I will not engage. For me, there is no one to blame. If you need someone to blame, I take the responsibility. I'm the head coach."

Asked why England's record goalscorer Kane played so deep in the latter stages, he said: "What do you mean? Like in the last 30 minutes? Why we defended in a deep block. Well, that's what you do if you defend in a block. We were not active enough."

Tuchel said Argentina had "played with a lot of momentum after our goal".