Gary Lineker took aim at Thomas Tuchel for his “unfathomable” and “astonishing” tactics as he questioned the future of the England manager following defeat by Argentina at the World Cup.

Anthony Gordon put England ahead in the 55th minute of the semi-final, but he was soon withdrawn by Tuchel, who brought on defenders Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn and Nico O’Reilly in the final 20 minutes. Enzo Fernández equalised in the 85th minute before Lautaro Martínez struck a stoppage-time winner to earn a 2-1 win for Argentina.

Raising doubts over Tuchel’s future as manager in the wake of the defeat, Lineker said: “Tuchel signed a new contract before the World Cup, but I just wonder what that position will feel like for him now. He was brought in to take us over the line.

“Is he the right man to take us forward? I never ask for anyone to get sacked, but it depends on him and how the FA feels. Are we satisfied with a semi-final?”

The perceived negative substitutes and approach have triggered a torrent of criticism and former England captain Lineker, speaking on The Rest is Football podcast on Netflix, added: “This one seems really, really hard to take.

“We went a goal up, they sat deep. The substitutes he made, made that even deeper. It turns to five at the back and you’re going, ‘we will play a low block’ against a team who are good against it.

“It made zero sense to me. Tactically it was astonishing, to be perfectly honest. It was a negative move. We all sat there watching the same game saying the same thing.

“I found it absolutely unfathomable that you’ve got a tactic, you’re playing against the greatest footballer there has ever been. Get tight to him [Messi]. He whipped ball after ball after ball into the box.”

Lineker then joked Tuchel was a “German spy” sent to scupper England.

“I jest, but I wonder if Thomas Tuchel is a German spy,” he said. “We’ve been infiltrated. I think Germany, because they’re not very good at the moment, can’t get past the group stage, and then they’ve sent in someone... I mean, I am joking.”

Pundit Joe Cole lamented the “same old problems” and said a fear of failure “paralyses” English teams.

“We can talk about tactics and substitutions, it comes from the manager ultimately, it’s heartbreaking,” he said.

Patrick Vieira, a fellow pundit and former France captain, said: “I am a fan of Thomas but he got it wrong. If he played the game again, he would not make the same changes.”

Lineker also jokingly questioned whether England were simply “s---” at football, pointing out they had lost to every one of the “big dogs” they had faced at major tournaments in recent years.

The former Match of the Day host, who called the team “s---” during the last European Championship, said: “England, every single time in the tournaments in recent history, have had good draws. But once they’ve got to play one of the big dogs, they’ve been beaten.”

He then turned to guest Vieira and said: “Why is that, Pat? Are we... are we s---?”

Wayne Rooney was scathing in his assessment of England’s exit and said: “The decisions Thomas Tuchel has made, we have to be honest, have cost us tonight.

“If you’re an attacking player on that pitch and you go 1-0 up, and you see the changes which the manager’s making, you’re losing belief, there’s only so many times you can get away with it.

“Then you start thinking, ‘Oh no, we’re going to sit back for this long, how are we going to get through this?’”

“It’s a panic, it’s a real panic. You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the ball and surrender any opportunity of going to try to get the second goal, because that’s what you want to do.

“If you let players of that quality have the ball around your penalty box, sooner or later they’re going to score.”

Joe Hart, the former England goalkeeper, drew tactical comparisons between Southgate and Tuchel on the BBC.

He said: “I think Gareth Southgate will be at home watching this game, he took a lot of criticism when it came to the big moments with England when they had the lead and shutting up shop.

“I don’t see anything’s changed in that big moment out there.

“Thomas Tuchel, for as much praise as we’ve given him, for him to change it as soon as he did, I think he realised that’s him saying he didn’t believe in his team, he didn’t think they could land any more punches on Argentina.”

Michael Owen, the former England striker, compared England’s performance to that of finalists Spain, who claimed a 2-0 victory over France in their final-four clash on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Owen said: “Watch Spain at 1-0 last night. That’s courage. That’s bravery. And then watch England at 1-0. What’s the difference?

“We are a better team than Argentina, I’ve no doubt in my mind. But we deserved to get beat in the end. In fact, it could have been 4-1. Bringing on three defenders at 1-0 up. What message does that send?”

Rooney added: “These fans have spent a lot of money to be out here. I expected more in this game.

“Argentina are the world champions. We knew it was going to be the difference. The changes we made didn’t help us. Devastated. Sometimes you need a bit of luck to win these tournaments.”

‘How can you trust Tuchel to take this team forward?’

Chris Sutton, the former Blackburn and Celtic striker, said on BBC 5 Live: “It was a coaching catastrophe from Thomas Tuchel. The fact that England get themselves in front and then basically hand Argentina the initiative, defending deep, another defender on.

“It’s quite a simple game football, you have to get up the pitch. You can’t expect to defend for 30 minutes against the quality Argentina have and keep giving the ball back to them. That’s what England did and it’s all on the coach as far as I’m concerned.

“He made the changes, he was negative. So the question which I’m going to ask is, how can you trust Thomas Tuchel to take this England team forward?

“I don’t care what anybody says, England have had a generous run in this competition, England haven’t played well in one 90 minutes in the World Cup.”

In a post on X, Iker Casillas said Tuchel had “committed hara-kiri”, which is a traditional form of ritual suicide by disembowelment via abdomen cutting, practised notably by Japanese samurai.

Former Bayern Munich midfielder Thomas Müller, a World Cup winner with Germany in 2014, said in a video posted on X: “I cannot believe and understand how England approaches this game, especially after they are leading.

“I cannot understand, to invite the whole Argentina game to hit one cross after another from perfect crossing positions, but no matter...”Chelsea celebrated midfielder Fernández’s equaliser with a picture of his celebration accompanied by an “explosion” emoji on X, but hastily deleted it after supporters criticised the post. “We’re an English football club. Poor from my club. Poor,” one fan wrote.