Mexico was the worst thing that could have happened for England. It was not the blueprint for winning a World Cup, it was the blueprint for losing one.I warned in the hours after the 3-2 win at the Azteca of a dangerous overreaction among former players and supporters. There was a complete misunderstanding of what bravery in football is really about. It was being labelled as our greatest-ever performance – and I was called miserable by some for pointing out that it absolutely was not.Sadly, it tricked everyone – even the players themselves – into believing that if you drop back and defend a lead you’ll be lauded as last-action heroes. That’s nonsense. You defend a lead by keeping the ball, by scoring a second, by puffing your chests out as a team and saying, ‘We’ve been better than you for an hour, now we’ll be better than you for another half an hour’.Instead, what we saw against Argentina was sadly inevitable. England were petrified of losing. Absolutely terrified. We can talk about technical failures, but this is about mindset. I know, I have lived it. I scored against Brazil in a World Cup quarter-final and we did exactly the same. Brazil then went down to 10 men and we couldn’t lay a glove on them. This is what happens, once you retreat and revert into that negative mindset, it’s irreversible. You have beaten yourselves.This now feels like the point where we have to confront what football courage truly means in this country. We have the players. We’ve always had the players. Look at the first hour against Argentina. You can’t tell me we didn’t keep the ball just as well if not better than them. The problems came when we scored. The problem was Mexico.If we really wanted to follow an example of how to win a World Cup semi-final, it was Spain 24 hours earlier. That’s bravery. They were playing against the best collection of attacking players at the tournament in France. Did they retreat? Did they suddenly decide possession didn’t matter anymore? No. They kept playing. They kept passing. They kept asking questions. That is what the best teams do. They made it about them, not France. Spain are playing in a World Cup final because of that, and the biggest frustration is that they should be playing us. England’s win over Mexico was the worst thing that could have happened to them in their World Cup bid Against Argentina on Wednesday, England were absolutely petrified of losingSo where do we go from here? I actually think England may need to suffer before they improve.Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp are a perfect example. In the early days, they would lead 3-0 and end up drawing 3-3 because they refused to compromise their style. People criticised them. Eventually they signed Virgil van Dijk, refined the system and became one of Europe’s great teams. Perhaps England need to experience similar pain. Perhaps we need to keep playing when we’re 1-0 ahead, even if that means occasionally losing 2-1.But if that’s the price of learning how to dominate games instead of surviving them, I’d happily pay it. What we’ve been doing clearly isn’t working. Croatia 2018. Italy 2021. Argentina 2026. All these huge games and huge opportunities gone to waste because of a mental fragility and misplaced belief that you defend what you’ve got. I cannot stress enough how damaging the euphoria post Mexico really was.This is where we look to Thomas Tuchel. I have not mentioned him to this point because I believe it’s important to address deeper-rooted issues that have been there for generations. But he got it wrong. He did not help the team when they needed it most. His substitutions and tactical changes encouraged negativity and doubt. They were some of the worst I’ve ever seen. He was brought in to change this. But rather than become the solution, he became part of the problem.Tuchel had said all the right things at half-time in the opening game against Croatia. I thought, ‘Oh, wow. This is good. This is new. He knows what bravery is’. He was filling his players with the belief and the boldness needed to win a tournament. Then, when it came to the crunch, he and England bottled it. We’ve got two world-class players in attack in Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, and yet we had six defenders on the field. We might as well have had two Conference lads up front, it was pointless.Tuchel has had an exceptional career and there is a lot to like about him. But the biggest game of his life and the biggest game of England’s recent history is not the time to cock it up. The greats rise to the occasion. They make the best decisions when the pressure is on.Giving him a new contract before the tournament was a farce. What’s that about? On the back of beating teams we should be beating in qualifying? It has left the FA with a problem, because this criticism of him isn’t going away anytime soon.For me, he should never have been appointed in the first place. I have been consistent on that, and this World Cup has only strengthened my belief that the England manager should be English. It should be our best against your best. Thomas Tuchel should not have been appointed in the first place and a fresh start is neededI’d like to know more about Tuchel’s comments about DNA being an issue, because mentally I would agree. But I don’t think we’ve got an issue in terms of how good our footballers are. I’m convinced this is not a technical problem. They just need help in reprogramming their mentality in those key moments where matches and tournaments turn.For that, I think a fresh start is needed. If this really is an English problem – and one we are finally prepared to confront instead of dressing up as heroic failure – then it needs an English manager. It needs someone who understands the scars of the past. Until we stop confusing survival with bravery, nothing will change. We will keep scoring first, keep retreating, keep celebrating guts instead of control, and keep wondering why the biggest prizes slip away.That is why Mexico was the worst thing that could have happened. It wasn’t the victory that beat England. It was the lesson they mistakenly took from it.How much is David Beckham set to pocket from his World Cup brand deals? Take on our quiz in our newsletter HERE