England Still Searching for an Identity, and Tuchel Admits It: "Maybe I Have to Embrace the Chaos"

Twelve minutes with just 12 percent possession and five shots across the entire match, England's lowest tally at a World Cup in 60 years. That's the brutal summary of the final stretch of the semifinal against Argentina, when the English were up 1-0 and ended up conceding the decisive goal to Lautaro Martinez in stoppage time. Right there, in that collapse, lies the problem Thomas Tuchel now has to solve.

The German arrived on the bench with a massive question hanging over him: how does England win? It's not a rhetorical question or a media invention. It's literally what the English federation has been chasing for more than a decade, ever since it rolled out its "England DNA" document back in December 2014, which talked about "intelligently dominating possession" and "penetrating the opposition" with a clear game plan. Lovely on paper. But when the moment of maximum pressure arrived, against Argentina, the team did the exact opposite.

That third-place finish secured with the 6-4 win over France was, at bottom, a consolation prize. The loss to Argentina still stings, and that's not just a figure of speech: Anthony Gordon admitted as much without holding back.

Being totally honest, I think every time you lose something of value in life, whether it's a person or something like a match or anything you really want to have or win, when you lose, you're never quite the same person again.Anthony Gordon

Harry Kane, who has already carried the weight of two lost Euro finals and a missed penalty at the last World Cup, was even more direct about what that defeat to Argentina meant.

Each one hurts in a different way, and this one definitely hurt more than any other. I felt like that wasn't us as a team. It wasn't the team we wanted to be and said we would be.Harry Kane

A pattern that keeps repeating

What happened against Argentina wasn't an isolated case. In 2018, England went ahead against Croatia in the semifinals and ended up getting pushed around until losing in extra time. Something similar happened in the Euro 2020 final: England were on top against Italy, but Jorginho and Marco Verratti gradually took control of the ball until they won the match on penalties. And in the Euro 2024 final, there was an image that says almost everything: with the score tied and England pressing Spain, Kyle Walker played a throw-in back, the ball ended up being cleared straight out of play by Jordan Pickford, and England went six minutes without touching the ball before Mikel Oyarzabal scored the goal that won Spain the title. Gareth Southgate, who was actually one of the people who helped write that "England DNA" manifesto, never fully managed to break that cycle despite the undeniable progress made during his tenure. And Tuchel, who took over afterward, was blunt in his diagnosis following the collapse against Argentina: keeping the ball "maybe isn't in our DNA the way it's in Spain's DNA, or Argentina's, or Brazil's."

Gordon himself, who left Newcastle for Barcelona and now has a privileged vantage point for comparing footballing cultures, went even further in his analysis ahead of this Saturday's match against Spain at Wembley, the opener of the new Nations League.

Culturally, it's not just that tournament or that game where we couldn't control a match. England as a nation doesn't have that same resolve as Spain, where they control games the way they do. It's not in us. I don't know if it's something that can be taught. We might never get that, but we can definitely improve, or maybe go the other way and really play to our strengths, which is playing physical, playing direct and on the counterattack.Anthony Gordon

It's a heavy admission, especially coming from one of England's standout players at the World Cup. And it raises the real dilemma facing Tuchel: keep insisting on copying the Spanish model, or accept that English identity might lie elsewhere, in verticality and physical directness?

The German manager himself publicly acknowledged he's wrestling with that inner tension.

Maybe I have to give up a bit of my desire for control for a bit more chaos, embrace the chaos, and maybe that brings out the best in us. I'm dealing with this myself.Thomas Tuchel

Gordon, for his part, defended his manager against criticism over the substitutions made against Argentina, including his own.

I felt like as players we could have done more to take the initiative, to control the match. Everyone wants to blame the manager because that's how football works, but one single person shouldn't be responsible for a million different decisions happening at the same time.Anthony Gordon

The call-ups of Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold, two players with excellent ball-handling ability, seem to hint at the direction Tuchel wants to take, even if the manager himself denies it. The partnership Kane and Jude Bellingham built during the World Cup also showed signs of progress. But the challenge remains the same: building a clear identity before England arrives as co-host, alongside other countries, of Euro 2028, where they will rank among the favorites.