Dan Burn has been reflecting on the England defeat to Argentina.
A World Cup semi-final that had been so full of promise but would end in heartbreak.
Anthony Gordon gave England a deserved lead on 55 minutes, the now former Newcastle United star with a great finish from an equally good Morgan Rogers ball.
The basic facts are that Enzo Fernandez then equalised on 85 minutes, then Lautaro Martinez got the winner in the second of nine minutes added on.
England unable to bounce back and never really threatened to equalise as the clock counted down.
Dan Burn reflecting on England 1 Argentina 2: “I think that when you come within sort of 10-15 minutes of a World Cup final and then don’t get it done, it hurts. I’m obviously very gutted right now but I’m so proud of what the team has done. We don’t even think anyone gave us a chance coming into this, the brotherhood that we spoke about just took us a long way and if I’m being honest, I thought we would do it. I just had that feeling that this was our time but I think Argentina showed why they are world champions, they have been there and they have done it.”
Thomas Tuchel went on the defensive when replacing Gordon on 72 minutes with Konsa, a defender.
Then turned that up another notch when taking off a defender (James) and a midfielder (Rice) and replaced them with two defenders, Burn and O’Reilly.
Dan Burn giving his thoughts on what played out: “I thought that we nailed the game plan up until we scored. I thought we did really well, we knew what Argentina were going to do and I thought we dealt with it pretty well. Then we got a little bit passive after the [Anthony Gordon] goal. Defended probably a little bit too deep and the quality of chances that Argentina were creating, I thought it felt like it was a matter of time. I think we conceded too many crosses and too many chances and I think it is hard because in the previous games we have defended those so well. So, I don’t think that we can take massive criticism for going into that.”
Thomas Tuchel will deserve much of the criticism he gets but as Dan Burn points out, Argentina allowed far too much space and freedom. Allowed to cross and shoot with the England players not getting tight enough.
This perfectly summed up on the two goals. Fernandez allowed to score from the edge of the penalty area with all of the England players lined up on the six yard line and reacting far too late, then Messi allowed so much room to cross despite two defenders attending him and Martinez a free header a few yards out with Stones having lost him.
Dan Burn nailing it as he continued his post-match analysis: “I think when we are in a 4-4-2 defending, we were conceding a lot of chances. So something had to change and as I said, we have been pretty solid when we were a back five in previous few games. I think the manager may want to have done something in hindsight…but also from the players, responsibility to get through. We have been 10-15 minutes away from the World Cup final and we really probably should see it out.”