lewis james

No… It wasn’t Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions… Anthony Gordon scored in the 55th minute. The (already) infamous substitutions were made in the 82nd minute. England had a measly 12% possession from the moment the ball hit the Argentinian net. It wasn’t the substitutions that made the difference (although perhaps they didn’t help)…it was the mindset of the England players after they scored. And this happens to England in major tournaments again and again and again and again… So what happened? Performance anxiety… “Don’t be the player to make a mistake” “Let’s just see this through” These aren’t thoughts. They’re feelings. Feelings in the pit of the stomach. Feelings that cascade through the whole body. Feelings that generate hesitancy, inhibition…and in the words of Thomas Tuchel post game, passiveness A Low Intent - energy-back. Arguably the biggest killer in high performance sport is a drop in intent. A couple of months ago I had the honour of being on The Overlap. As I described to Gary, Roy, Ian and Scholesy - “A drop in intent can make great players look very average.” Last night, a drop in intent made the England players, great players, look shockingly poor - an energy-back negatively impacting awareness, anticipation, decision-making, physicality, technical and tactical play. The same happened against Spain in the Euros final 2024 and against Italy in the Euros final against Italy in 2020. And in countless tournaments prior. Energy-back vs Energy-forward… Argentina - energy-forward. Singing their national anthem with gusto. As aggressive in the press and in duels as you’re going to see. Slightly bending the rules. Being nasty…in their opponents’ faces… …competing with so much passion and adoration for each other and with so much want and will and determination that there’s no room for anxieties (fears, uncertainties, doubts)… No room… This is hard to accomplish. Brutally, disgustingly hard. Phenomenally hard. Why? Because striving to play with energy-forward under pressure is so metabolically costly. It requires enormous will-power and tenacity…which needs an enormous amount of energy. It feels horrible. It feels exhausting. That’s why so many teams fail to deliver under pressure. No, it wasn’t Tuchel’s substitutions. It’s a failure to address a national characteristic - a socio-cultural and bio-psychological tendency to play with fear (energy-back) under pressure. This needs to be tackled now for the 2028 Euros and the 2030 World Cup. Plans need to be put in place…mental frameworks need to be laid down. Attention Intensity Intent England (like all nations and like all club teams) need mental frameworks that help players to compete with High Attention; Optimal Intensity; and (most importantly) High Intent under pressure. And there is a behavioural template that shines like a beacon through the fog of complexity in the world game - the Argentinian National Team… …they are, quite simply, the warriors of international football