Was Thomas Tuchel right to criticise Gareth Southgate over England being ‘scared to lose’ at Euro 2024?

Thomas Tuchel gave an honest – and brutal – appraisal of England’s Euro 2024 shortcomings under Sir Gareth Southgate in his first pre-match press conference as manager, saying the Three Lions had “played to not lose” as they stuttered past a number of smaller nations on their way to the final.

Southgate was often a divisive figure during his eight years in charge of the men’s national team, with questions over his tenure reignited by Tuchel’s comments on Thursday.

England failed to inspire during much of last summer’s tournament, winning only two of six games inside 90 minutes en route to the final – and struggling to create against the likes of Slovakia and Slovenia, who were both ranked outside the top 40 sides in the world at the time.

Was the German right to point out England’s significant flaws against nations they were expected to beat comfortably at Euro 2024? Or does reaching a first overseas final deserve more respect?

Here’s the case for either side…

Tuchel right to highlight England’s fear of failure

“Watching the Euros I felt tension and pressure on the shoulders of the players and they were playing not to lose,” was Tuchel’s view of how his new charges performed under Southgate at last summer’s European Championship.

Anyone viewing England’s laboured displays in the group stage in Germany, when they only managed to edge past Serbia, before being held by both Denmark and Slovenia, would surely agree with the new Three Lions manager’s verdict.

Southgate himself pointed this out at the time, saying: “[The players were] almost concerned about what could go wrong. We haven’t had that for a few years. Maybe that was expectation, maybe that was a lot of external things as well.”

It did not get much better either in the last-16 clash with lowly Slovakia when England were rescued from an ignominious early exit by Jude Bellingham’s spectacular last-gasp equaliser.

Tuchel’s checklist of England’s failures at the tournament also included no clear playing style, clarity, identity, rhythm, freedom and hunger, which makes their eventual appearance in the final all the more remarkable, but the stats do back the German up.

The Three Lions finished the tournament averaging 10 shots per game – ranking 19th out of 24 sides – while they placed 15th for winning the ball back in the final third – winners Spain did so almost twice as frequently. And in terms of work rate, no English player was in the top 20 for distance covered per 90 minutes.

But for Tuchel, ultimately it was the weight of the England shirt that contributed to their lacklustre performances at the Euros, which remember they went into as favourites for.

“It’s not worth it to get distracted and bothered, but you all said it and I have heard it so many times now – the weight of the shirt, the weight of the shirt,” Tuchel added.

It is that pressure that is counter productive, which is why Tuchel thinks it will be better if England head into the 2026 World Cup not as one of the favourites: “The tradition for the national team is not to win and we have to maybe accept that once we arrive in America maybe we are not the favourites.”

And then that way, maybe England will be better able to fulfil his stated ambition for “us to play with excitement and the hunger and desire to win”.
Richard Morgan

Why Southgate’s achievements deserve more respect

Southgate’s tenure as England manager has and will understandably be debated at length. But there is one key fact we cannot get away from: two of their three major finals, and their only one on foreign soil, came on his watch.

There is no denying England played with caution in Germany last year and Southgate owes a lot to Bellingham’s individual heroics against Slovakia for avoiding what would been an unsightly end to his tenure.

But the grit and determination which got them out of jail in that game, helped England keep their heads in a perfect penalty shoot-out victory against Switzerland and push until the last kick against the Netherlands is something he can take much of the credit for.

Southgate’s greatest achievement as England manager is undoubtedly the way he lifted the weight of the shirt in a way few others have managed. It did not feel so free in Germany last summer, but there was not the same wilting as we have seen in previous tournaments.

For an England team really afraid of losing, look back to the Euro 2016 exit against a country with a population of 400,000, getting a solitary point at World Cup 2014 or failing to qualify at all for Euro 2008. This was Southgate’s worst major tournament and he still led England to a final.

Once there, the performance against Spain again highlighted his biggest flaws – a lack of elite tactical acumen and in-game adaptability. But equally, you do not reach two finals and a semi-final on man management alone, and he is a better tactician than he is often given credit for.

In time history will look back more kindly on England’s second-most successful manager, because his mild-mannered modesty made a very difficult job look a lot easier than it did for most of his predecessors – most of whom arrived with far better CVs than he had.

If Tuchel can deliver on his promise of front-foot, attacking football and make England players excited to play for the team, all credit to him. But those kind of chest-thumping statements build exactly the kind of pressure Southgate was at pains to alleviate, and have come back to bite many an England manager before him.
Ron Walker