We played almost the perfect game for 55 minutes, it was fairly even and we gave as good as we got even with the Argies dirty tactics (how did Enzo not get sent off for quite literally punching Anderson in the back of the head?).
We then take the lead…and initially I lay the blame with the players for almost instantaneously retreating into their shell and moving further and further back towards their own 6 yard box. Tuchel then waited 17 minutes until the 72nd minute to change it by bringing on a defender (Konsa) for Gordon (probably our best outlet). This just calcified that shitty defensive mentality and told the players to try hanging on to the lead we had. He should have made more positive changes to try and get a hold back on the game, at least bringing on someone who could stretch the game in behind (a la Rashford/Saka/Watkins) or a midfielder who can retain possession and move us up the pitch (a la Mainoo). But no, he just brings on more defensive players, let’s arguably the world’s greatest ever player have the ball and do whatever he wants with it…and the rest is history.
Ultimately I lay the majority of blame on TT for getting it wrong…but that “shirking into our shell” mentality was certainly initiated by the players to start with.
