Thomas Tuchel: Why England head coach's critics forced to stay quiet despite Nations League loss to Spain
Following England's 3-2 defeat to Spain in the Nations League, manager Thomas Tuchel avoided intense media backlash because the team displayed positive attacking intent. Despite defensive frailties and Spain's overall superiority, critics withheld harsh judgments to evaluate the team's ongoing development.
Why it matters
It demonstrates how public perception of national sports managers depends heavily on qualitative performance markers even when facing defeats against elite opponents.
The narrative before this first post-World Cup international was clear: if England lose, the pressure on Thomas Tuchel could become unbearable. <p>The big name on the big bucks, brought in to win the big games, could not afford to lose to Spain after the tactical disaster of the World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina. The court of public opinion, and the bile of the English media, would combine to make life very difficult for the England boss.</p><p>Well, here we are, in the aftermath of a 3-2 loss to the newly-crowned world champions, where England were outclassed on numerous occasions, where the scoreline should have been much one-sided, where for long periods Spain looked far superior to the Three Lions, where after half an hour the visitors should have been four-nil up. That's surely it, then? Auf Wiedersehen, Thomas?</p><p>Nope.
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