“A funny quote for you,” Thomas Tuchel says as he prepares to lead England in the World Cup semi-final against Argentina on Wednesday but peeks back at a subject that has attracted a few column inches of late. “You don’t have to be a horse to be a good jockey.”
It is a line made famous by Arrigo Sacchi in 1987 when he was appointed as the manager of Milan despite being a relative unknown and having had no professional playing career. It worked out pretty well for Sacchi, just as it has done for Tuchel, who was forced to hang up his boots as a 24-year-old after a knee injury. He played no higher than the Bundesliga 2 with Stuttgart Kickers and spent time at SSV Ulm, a semi-professional club in the third tier. “I had a mediocre career at best,” Tuchel says.
The context is the jibe that Jude Bellingham aimed at Tuchel after England’s 2-1 quarter-final win against Norway in Miami on Saturday. The midfielder, who scored in first-half injury time and again in extra-time amid searing heat, was unamused to hear Tuchel had criticised the technical levels of his team. “Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in those kind of conditions against Erling Haaland, [Martin] Ødegaard, [Antonio] Nusa, [Alexander] Sørloth,” Bellingham said.
As an aside, Bellingham did not have to go in so strongly. When he did, it became a talking point and, by extension, a story. It has led to a bit of damage limitation work for those inside the England set-up, with Tuchel wanting to stress that he loved a lot of what his players did against Norway, but not all of it. He reserves the right to highlight the bad stuff if it keeps the squad on their toes.
What Tuchel has done in the buildup to the Argentina game, which is one of the biggest in England’s history, perhaps the ultimate grudge match, is to turn the spotlight on to his players in a way that shows his admiration for them, that fills them with confidence. A playing career at this level is the dream of so many, including Tuchel. It is not for everyone. Tuchel’s squad are advised to remember this.
“It just strikes me from time to time on the sideline right before the match that I couldn’t play here on this occasion,” Tuchel says. “I had an FA Cup final with Chelsea where you walk out with the players so I was actually standing there with them for the national anthem. And I just felt like: ‘Wow.’
“It was a good moment for me to put into perspective what I then demand from just 10 metres on the other side of the sideline. It felt so different. I’m so close all the time but just being there, I thought: ‘Wow.’ I had the same moment in my first home Bundesliga match as the Borussia Dortmund coach. It was against Borussia Mönchengladbach and, two minutes before the whistle goes, I think: ‘Wow. I’m so glad I don’t have to play because I would not have the legs for it.’
“You need to be a special breed if you want to take the last step and play in these moments. I cannot praise enough the players who perform, who put out physicality, who open their legs and feel free and put on a fight.”
The stakes could scarcely be higher and not only because of the well-documented history with Argentina. England have played in just three World Cup semi-finals, winning in 1966 against Portugal en route to glory; losing to West Germany on penalties in 1990 and Croatia in 2018.
These are the games that bring a nation to a standstill, when everybody remembers where they were and with whom they watched; the sheer depth of the emotion. It is when legends are created. Tuchel does not want to consider this part of the equation. “It is to focus on what the players need to do to become that, not to talk about the end product,” he says.
Nor does he go over-the-top about Lionel Messi, the Argentina icon, who will face England for the first time in his 23-season career. Tuchel is asked whether Messi is the greatest. “One of them,” he replies. “There are so many different layers in football in so many different positions. He is right up there, for sure.”
Tuchel goes on to mention how well his team played against Norway’s attacking talisman, Erling Haaland. “So we will find a way now [against Messi],” he says.
Argentina have not controlled matches at this tournament, partly because of their structure, which essentially has Messi and Julián Alvarez as a front two. They can be over-run. Defensively, they are a little loose. They have flirted with disaster against lower-ranked opponents. They have been a team of moments. Sound familiar, England fans?
The questions pound for Argentina. Where is the width? Are their players running enough? Are they able to stand up to the physical challenge? They were certainly jolted in this respect by Switzerland in the quarter-final. But if the defending champions have looked beatable, then nobody has beaten them. They fight until the last breath and find a way. Usually because of you know who.
England have not hit the heights as a cohesive unit and yet they will enter the air-cooled stadium in Atlanta with optimism. Perhaps it is because of the gap between what they have shown and the level of which they are capable. More tangibly, this team creates chances. Even when they have trailed, they do not look finished, which is a major break from convention. They have a manager who is not slow to make changes, especially the bold ones.
Tuchel can feel the excitement rising. “These last two minutes as a coach before matches and even more so now with the national anthem … I feel so alive,” he says. “I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world in these kind of moments. I can really take that in and I will again in the buildup to this game.”
Then, it will be over to his thoroughbreds.
