Thomas Tuchel has opened up on England’s World Cup semi-final capitulation to Argentina and admitted he ‘has to live with the scar’ of the result. The Three Lions had looked to be heading to their first World Cup final since 1966 when Anthony Gordon put them 1-0 ahead after 55 minutes. However, Enzo Fernandez equalised in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martinez added an injury time winner in a gut-wrenching defeat which defined England’s tournament.A key point in the match came with 19 minutes to go when Tuchel subbed on Ezri Konsa and went to a back-five, before he later brought on fellow defenders Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly.From that moment on, Argentina dominated the game and Tuchel was heavily criticised, with many feeling his changes and in-game management cost England.And, speaking on the FA’s documentary about England’s run called Reflections: England’s World Cup Journey, Tuchel spoke about the ‘agony of epic proportions’ and pointed to Djed Spence’s memorable sliding tackle to thwart an Argentina attack as a key moment. Thomas Tuchel has opened up on England’s World Cup semi-final capitulation to Argentina England were 1-0 up but ended up losing 2-1 after Tuchel made a series of defensive changes’It did something to me,’ Tuchel told former England striker Daniel Sturridge. ‘It did maybe something to the players, and we suddenly shifted into a mindset: “Let’s just overcome it” – that’s how we played.’We played like there are four minutes left, but it was actually 30-40 minutes left to play. From execution, the details of execution, playing around in the deep build-up, playing around Messi, bringing them to one side, switching the side, bringing the game in the opponent’s half, making them suffer, have time to recover physically and mentally in ball possession. We were lacking all these things. ‘Argentina then played very, very quickly. Sorry for the language, “f*** it” football. “We have nothing to lose, so let’s f*** it.”‘They played two wingers, two strikers, and Messi. So they just took a six off and put a 10 in. At some point they played 3-1-6. And we struggled.’Tuchel also revealed why he decided to switch to a back-five, having deployed the strategy in successful knockout victories over Mexico and Norway. He added: ‘A key moment, if I think about what happened to my decision-making, we conceded a big, big chance right before the water break. ‘And I thought, “Okay, we will not survive. This is waiting for death.” We don’t have ball possession. We’re not defending good. We’re not defending properly in our 4-4-2. We need help.’Coming with this mindset and coming with the experience that we ended the game against Norway in a back-five, we ended the match against Mexico in a back-five, and we did it. ‘I thought they [Argentina] rely heavily on crosses. They have four strikers in the last line. I thought like, “Okay, let’s play a back five here.” Tuchel reflected on his decision-making and insisted he ‘has to live with the scar’ of the lossTuchel insisted that ‘no one knows what would’ve happened’ if he deployed different in-game tactics, and defended his changes as he added: ‘We could have done it and maybe lost 2-1 and people would go like: “Is he crazy? Against Norway, he finished the game with five. Why not finish the game off with five?”‘I think from what I saw and the experience and the information and the level of craziness that Argentina put in, change after change after change, it was one offensive change after the other, that was just my solution to the problem.’I tried to help, that’s what the intervention of a coach is. I tried to help. You don’t try to implement anything for your ego or whatever. You just try to help.’If we would have been more stable in the game, let’s say with more percentage of ball possession, I would have not changed the structure – why would I? And I would’ve gone for offensive changes.’The German coach continued: ‘But that is a very, very difficult road to go down that can torture you and you can try to kill me here, but it’s my scar. It’s not your scar. I have to live with it. You don’t have to live with it. I have to live with this. ‘I am in charge here, and I take these decisions. It’s the players’ scar, and it’s my scar, and I have to live with it and keep on going.’No one is more hurt than me. No one wanted it more. And you can now endlessly torture yourself and think if I would have done a different substitution, then we would’ve won the match. You just don’t know it.’England are back in action later this month when they kick off their Nations League campaign with two fixtures against Czech Republic and one against Spain and Croatia.Tuchel will name his squad for that international camp on Friday morning.