Gary Neville reacts to England's World Cup exit | "An age-old problem"

I'm feeling pretty good.Obviously, a sobering night for England.But yeah, I think it's been a good tournament.I know that fans will be extremely disappointed.I never had us winning the tournament, to be fair, from the beginning, and I don't know who did.Maybe the optimists amongst us would say that England were going to win the tournament, but I never felt we were going to win the tournament, and I thought that just getting to the semi -final would have been an incredible achievement.

Disappointed with how it's ended, you obviously get there and then you think we've got a chance, and particularly with five minutes to go, we're 1 -0 up.You think we've got a chance, but the reality of it is some of the same patterns emerged in the game that have pampered England, I think, in tournaments gone by over the past 20, 30 years.

As you can imagine, we've been doing a full debrief today here on Sky Sports News, speaking to lots of people.We've looked at the momentum chart as well, which I know that you've seen too.And there's been so much chat about Thomas Tuchel getting his tactics wrong after England went ahead last night.What's your thoughts on it?

Before we even made a change though, we started to sit back and we started to slump back into our own box.And as I was watching it live, I think it was a few minutes after we conceded that first goal, after we scored our goal, I went, oh lads, get out of your box, get out of your box.And when you stop shifting your legs as a back four and your midfield start to collapse on top of you, I've seen that film before many, many times, and I've been part of that film many times with the England team, who somehow, for some reason, the mentality, the fatigue, whatever it is, physical, mental, tactical understanding, technical ability on the ball to be able to keep the ball, we fall short, whether you look at the game against Spain in the Euros, Italy back at Wembley in the Euros final, whether you go back to 2004 against Portugal, when Helder Bastiga scored a goal with eight minutes to go and we were 1 -0 up for 60, 70 minutes, but we were hanging on in there.We have done this continually in tournaments, England for a long, long time.And it's not just Thomas Tucker who's fallen foul of that.There are many England managers and many England players, including myself, who have been guilty of, I don't know what it is. I think it's a combination of fatigue meets protectionism where you think we're going to protect a lead rather than sort of what will be play our own game and be more positive, get on the ball, still try and pass, still try and get out of your box and play a higher line.

We tend to sag back, become very narrow.And once we started to sag back and become very narrow into our own box last night, Messi spotted a little position out on that right side when we were quite narrow, even with 5 -4 -1, we were so narrow that meant that he pulled out onto this right hand side.and he took the game away from us on his own, effectively.I know there were other combinations and other factors, but that little right -hand side there, that little heat map that you can see, and that was the one frustration for me.It's not easy just to say, go and mark Messi, but we should have flooded that area.We should never have tucked in as narrow as we did on that side.

We should have definitely left one or two players out there against him and forced him to try and occupy a different position on the pitch.But we didn't do, we didn't see that position.So people talk about the negative substitutions and maybe putting defenders on.It was those defenders that were on, not attaching themselves close enough to Messi when the ball was on the opposite side of the pitch and it kept getting switched across to him that I thought was a massive factor.so deep because we were going back in on top of Jordan Pickford and going very close to him.

What you touched on there just a few moments ago about mentality this was a common theme that has been brought up today Michael Owen said it's a very English thing that we we don't we don't try and win we're so scared of winning that you know you're kind of just trying to hold on at that moment but Tuchel was brought in wasn't he to bring thatwinning mentality.Why do you think it is that England is like that?

There's no doubt we all try to win.Every England player that I ever played with and every England player that was out on that pitch last night was so desperate to win that match and so desperate to bring success to the country from a football perspective.So it's not through a lack of want this, you know, a lack of care.He chose to try and win the game in the same way that he did with 10 men against Mexico, where we were very resolute, resilient, tight, compact, and get over the line.You can do that with 10 men in Mexico, and that happened, and we won.He tried to do the same last night by seeing the game out.

The problem was that there was an avalanche of pressure coming towards us with great crosses, not just from actual Messi, from Rodrigo de Paul, put a couple in as well from that right -hand side.And we just got done.by quality.The second goal is magnificent from Messi in terms of his cross and what he does.And it is something that England teams have been guilty of so often.I don't know how you change it.

I went to, I've said this before, I went to eight tournaments as a player and a coach.Five of them got knocked out on penalties.Many of them, to be fair, ended up sagging back into our own box, very deep, not on the front foot, the very opposite of what English football is. and all I can put it down to having a lot of lived experience of what those lads were feeling last night is that your legs start to get heavy.You start to become under pressure.You start to protect your lead.Think you can get over the line by basically sort of keeping your clean sheet or keeping the sort of ball out of the back of your net rather than thinking more positively, which is how do we go and counterattack and score that second goal?

And there was some experienced players out on that pitch last night before Thomas Tupel started making substitutionsand there were some experienced players back in the day.Because these are patterns that have emerged time and time again.We're all guilty of it that have played for England.So the idea of me just going and sort of what would be, you know, lumping in on Thomas Tuchel this morning is not going to happen.I was a bigger part of the problem when I played as, to be fair, the lads that played last night and sunk deep into their own box.

It's just something we've got in our psyche.It's something that we've done.That means that we've brought pressure on ourselves and we've been knocked out of tournaments time and time again in this way.It's not good enough.We haven't got the technical ability, I don't think, of the team to be able to play through the middle thirds.I keep talking about sort of these players that play for these other countries at the very elite levels.

They have the ability to keep the ball under possession in the highest pressure moments of matches, and then you add that little bit of stardust like Messi on top of that, and you've got something that ultimately gets you over the line.We've not been able to get over the line like that.And last night wasn't the greatest of nights for obviously Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, our two best players.They had quiet nights by their standards, which again, you know, that second goal can come through a bit of magic that again just becomes that difference maker.So that's what you're looking for in a moment like this.

You mentioned that there's a couple of factors, isn't there?The fatigue, the pressure, there's so much.You know more than most how heavy that England shirt is on a player's back.Acave, we spoke to earlier, was saying that it was about 80 % Argentina fans in that stadium as well.I suppose watching from back home, we can forget how difficult it is and the pressure that are on these players.

Yeah, there is pressure on the English players, but believe me, there is massive pressure on the Argentinian players and the French players and the Spanish players.They have huge pressure as well, the weight that's on Messi's shoulders and the rest of those Argentinian players with the fans and what they expect.The Brazilian players are exactly the same, so we're not the only country that has pressure.And by the way, they had a group of players last night, the two centre -backs,Lissandro Martinez, Cristian Romero.McAllister from Liverpool, Enzo Fernandes from Chelsea.

They're the number of players that play in the Premier League, by the way, that go through the same conditions as we do.So, Martin Eddingale.So, half their team, by the way, plays in the Premier League.So, we can't make this complaint that it's just us that are fatigued.When they're fatigued, they have the ability to keep the ball better and they have a psyche in those moments which, to be fair, is far greater than ours.And they've proved that over decades, let alone over sort of what would be this tournament.

So again, we're looking at an age -old problem for England, not one that's been created or caused by just this current group of players and Thomas Schuylkill, but one that's actually, to be fair, been a problem for us for many, many decades and years.

In terms of England defeats, where does last night rank for you in terms of disappointment?

It's a massive disappointment.Is it worse than sort of what would be the ones that, you know, we've got two finals in last sort of four or five tournaments.These lads also, some of them got knocked out of a semi -final in Russia in 2018.These lads that are playing in this team, a lot of them have taken us very close over this last six, seven, eight years.And they've done a brilliant job playing for England.And, you know, that's not maybe going to be a popular sort of phrase this morning, but their achievements, to be fair, have been great.

They've just not been able to get over the line and that will cause them great pain.Last night being five minutes away from a World Cup final and not getting there will live with them forever.I said before that the closest I've ever come to crying on a football pitch was in 2006.We got knocked out of a World Cup quarterfinal and penaltied against Portugal and I was 31 years of age and recognised that I was never going to play in a World Cup again for my country and that my time had gone.and even now I can feel the emotion inside me feeling about that moment.I can actually still think about being there.

Harry Kane last night at the age of 32 will probably recognise that that is his moment.ever World Cup.Maybe for John Stones, Jordan Pickford, these lads that are in their 30s, they will be extremely emotional.They will be so disappointed and gutted and dejected this morning to a level that you can't even imagine.I've been there.They will be sunk in their rooms as low as you can possibly get, as England fans are.

But if England fans want any comfort, it's that those lads last night, that they were watching will be suffering very badly in this next few days and weeks because it will never leave them, it never does.And it's upsetting because you want us to get over the line but we weren't good enough.Argentina were the better team from the moment that goal went in that we scored, they were so much better than us.

Gary, do you think there should be any questions around Thomas Tuchel's future?

No, I don't think about his future.I think it's legitimate that he would come under pressure for his decision making.He tried to win the game a certain way.The majority will disagree with the way in which he tried to approach that.He's there to get us over the line.That's what he was brought in to do.

He will get criticism because he was the sort of big ticket manager that was going to come in and be the difference maker.and the game changer in these sort of tight moments, the fine lines of international football, where it's on penalties or where it's on a substitution or where it's the last five minutes in a World Cup semi -final.He was brought in to be the person who had the experience to be able to deal with that and he's not got over the line.So he will come under pressure.But I'll go back to my first statement.I never expected England to win this tournament.

I don't think they were good enough to win this tournament.I think England, to be fair, have done well to get to the semi -final.Slightly fortunate that they've played some teams along the way as well that I think were favorable.So for me, I think that the first time that they were going to come up against a team that had elite experience of keeping the ball, they've fallen at that first fence of playing against an elite team.I always thought they might do because of the fact that ultimately I don't believe we keep the ball in the bestI don't believe we keep the ball in the biggest matches in the most important moments.

It's been a fault of England for many, many years.And the team that Thomas Tuchel picked, or the squad that Thomas Tuchel picked, was a counter -attacking squad.He took out the technical players like Foden, and Parma and Gibbs White and Wharton and didn't play Kobe Meunier, by the way, last night, which I think was a mistake.I think not to bring Kobe Meunier on and try and get a grip of the game in midfield and probably bring Matt Rashford on with some pace or Saka.I do think that was a mistake.I do think he'll regret that.

But, you know, he'll know that.He'll reflect upon it himself.

You mentioned Romero.So I just wanted to ask you about before the game, you described Romero and Martinez as the best, worst centre -half pairing in the world.Romero's let you know what he thinks about those comments.Do you still stand by them?

Yeah, I think, well, just to add the extra words that I said on, I said that they give goals away.They've conceded six, by the way, in the knockout games, in four matches.If they didn't have Lionel Messi up front, them two should go and hug him every single minute of every single day, because to be fair, he'd have to pull them out of the mire when they've conceded two against Egypt and two against Cape Verde, one against Switzerland and one against England.So they've conceded six gold in knockout phases, but then I did go on to say that they are incredible, they were my exact words, and their force of nature, how they go and try and win the game for their countries, they go from the sublime to the ridiculous.I mean, Romero played in a team last year that nearly went down and got relegated in the Premier League and conceded 65 goals.So I think I know what I'm talking about when I watch a player.

He's very talented, as is Alessandro Martinez, but they do make mistakes.Lots of them.And they have conceded goals, but they are a force of nature.They have incredible personalities.They go and win every header in the attacking box and sometimes in the defensive box.And I just see so many

contradiction in games between that.I don't think anybody else there, you know, he's relatively young.I think Romero, he's got a lot of, he's not an experienced defender yet.He's won a world cup and he's got incredible achievements, but without Lee and El Messi last night and without Lee and El Messi in this last two tournaments, what we should talk about him because he is absolutely what we saw last night was absolute genius.And yeah, Argentina didn't win last night because of the centre -backs.They won last night because of their great player, who is arguably the greatest player of all time.

Spain were able to deal with France's attacking talent.Are they going to be able to do the same with Lionel Messi, Gary?

You're dealing with a force, a chemistry, a passion, and somebody who...Yeah.I mean, what he did last night was the greatest players are able to go and select the part of the pitch that they need to be in to win their team, the game.And he went and played effectively as attacking right back in that sort of right channel.And then went and did his stuff from there for the last 20 minutes.He didn't go and play center forward.

He didn't go and play as a number 10.He didn't go and play as a traditional wide player.He actually sat out of the game outside of England's shape.and just the ability to be able to go and do that and spot where the game is and spot where he can have the biggest influence in a time whereby Argentina are out of the World Cup.And they've been out of the World Cup two or three times in this tournament, but for him and obviously a couple of his teammates scoring goals.So yeah, Spain are capable, but they're up against almost an unstoppable machine when it comes to the Argentinian sort of mentality that they have and also Messi and the way in which they sort of all be grouped around him.