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Much has been made about how England manager Thomas Tuchel approached Wednesday's World Cup semifinal loss tactically after the Three Lions had taken a second-half lead over Argentina.
And one animation, in particular, showed the stark change following Anthony Gordon's goal.
After applying pressure and playing toe-to-toe with Argentina for the first hour of the match, England completely dropped back to defend a one-goal lead against a Lionel Messi-led attack. It was the kind of tactical blunder that handed control of the match to Argentina, and England was only able to hold on for so long before Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martínez provided the equalizer and winner, respectively.
But to see that all represented in a heat map animation was jarring. England basically became a different team for those final 30-plus minutes.
At the time of Gordon's goal, England's median action was about 50 yards away from its goal. After the goal, that changed to a median action of 20.7 yards from its goal. It was a retreat in every sense.
By dropping back that dramatically and that early, Tuchel's squad ceded all momentum over to Argentina despite having the attacking talent to chase another goal. You can't do that and get away with it against a team of Argentina's caliber.
The animation really puts the change into perspective.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: A heat map animation showed England's drastic World Cup retreat against Argentina
Continue reading...
And one animation, in particular, showed the stark change following Anthony Gordon's goal.
After applying pressure and playing toe-to-toe with Argentina for the first hour of the match, England completely dropped back to defend a one-goal lead against a Lionel Messi-led attack. It was the kind of tactical blunder that handed control of the match to Argentina, and England was only able to hold on for so long before Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martínez provided the equalizer and winner, respectively.
But to see that all represented in a heat map animation was jarring. England basically became a different team for those final 30-plus minutes.
At the time of Gordon's goal, England's median action was about 50 yards away from its goal. After the goal, that changed to a median action of 20.7 yards from its goal. It was a retreat in every sense.
By dropping back that dramatically and that early, Tuchel's squad ceded all momentum over to Argentina despite having the attacking talent to chase another goal. You can't do that and get away with it against a team of Argentina's caliber.
The animation really puts the change into perspective.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: A heat map animation showed England's drastic World Cup retreat against Argentina
Continue reading...
