ESPN’s Taylor Twellman Rips England Manager Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup Blunder

Taylor Twellman was already shaking his head before Rich finished asking the question, which tells you how much 20/20 hindsight was involved.

England scored in the 55th minute. What happened next is the thing everyone will argue about, and ESPN's Twellman had his verdict ready. "What he did is not wrong. When he did it is absolutely unequivocally wrong. And anyone that was watching the game knew that right away."

He said he texted about 10 friends who were watching. The reaction was unanimous and immediate. Thirty minutes left? No way.

But the timing is not what actually bothers him. The second point is the one Twellman kept coming back to.

After the Norway match, Thomas Tuchel criticized his players. England won that game, ground through it, and the manager said it was not good enough and they needed to be better. After this one, Twellman said, Tuchel treated the tactical question as unfair, declined to answer it, deflected, and said he had no regrets, that this was the best game and the only way England could have played it.

"Whoa, you cannot have your cake and eat it, too," Twellman said.

The hire itself was the surprise. Tuchel was brought in by the English FA, a German manager, on the theory that he was a step above tactically and understood what those moments require. Twellman said that was surprising to him and to anyone in the world he lives in.

"And he did exactly what every previous English manager did," Twellman said. "And that is scared money doesn't make money, Rich. You cannot do that."

Then the numbers. Why put all 11 players behind the ball with a 1-0 lead and finish with 14% possession? Why leave Harry Kane playing on top of his own 18-yard box? What that does, Twellman argued, is send Lionel Messi an invitation. Float wide right. Take all the time in the world. Find the pass.

The part that gets under his skin is the accountability gap. The ex-player in him objects to a manager criticizing his squad in the thick of the battle in Miami, in the heat of a grinded-out win, and then deflecting when the questions turn tactical.

"There's no way, no way he gets away with that," Twellman said. "And I don't think he will with the English media. I don't."

The English FA has already indicated Tuchel will still be in charge for the European Championships in 2028. Twellman is not convinced. "I'm not sure, my man. I'm not."

Rich, observing from across the pond, as an American sportscaster is apparently mandated to say, landed in the same place. Tuchel is being portrayed as the most unpopular individual in England since Braveheart, with Longshanks looking to get his hooks in.