James Moriarty writes: “The thing that is really bothering me, in this endless Brave England’s failure autopsy, is this - Tuchel was, until the semi-final, universally praised for making game changing substitutions. Which is all well and good, but it happened seemingly in every game, which surely points to a bigger issue: namely that NONE of his starting line-ups worked, and games were only won by substitutes changing the course of the match. England were staggeringly lucky to get as far as they did, and were the worst of the semi-finalists by a country mile, so perhaps we should all be grateful that Tommy T has spared the embarrassment of getting humbled by Spain in the final. Anyway, I’m very much looking forward to France Reserves vs Jordan Henderson XI tomorrow.”
I would argue in the world of five substitutions that there is always a plan to throw the ‘finishers’ on. I think the subs against Norway were rather odd, to be honest, too.
