Donald Trump adds to Thomas Tuchel criticism by questioning Harry Kane role
Donald Trump joined the chorus of criticism over Thomas Tuchel’s defence-minded approach against Argentina as the United States President questioned the England manager’s “unusual” use of his golf buddy Harry Kane.
The inquest into Wednesday’s late 2-1 World Cup semi-final collapse to their bitter rivals is well under way, with fans and pundits alike panning the head coach’s tactics and substitutions in Atlanta.
Trump has surprisingly joined those questioning Tuchel as England ready themselves for Saturday’s unwanted bronze medal match against France rather than the final against Spain.
The US President was particularly puzzled by the way the German coach utilised captain Kane, who revealed last week that they had played a round of golf together around 18 months ago in Florida.
“You have a great player in England, who I played golf with,” Trump said in a press conference. “You know that, right? He is Harry, who’s been fantastic.
“I think they perhaps made a mistake when they made him a defensive player. What do I know about soccer? They took the lead, and they took their best player and put him on defence.”
Gianni Infantino laughed alongside Trump, with the FIFA president shrugging and then applauding his remarks.
President Trump continued: “We have got to be a little offensive, right? But, no, I am not going to call it.
“Look, what do I know about coaching? But that was a little unusual, but Harry is a great guy, actually.”
England boss Tuchel bristled when Trump’s criticism was mentioned at the start of what was always going to be a tense press conference nominally previewing the France game.
“Do you use Donald Trump as your witness for the case or…?” asked the German coach when a question about the manner of the Argentina defeat mentioned that even the US President had chimed in.
Trump’s name did not come up again during the 30-minute media engagement, but the way all-time top scorer Kane was used did and got Tuchel’s back up.
“In which situation did Harry play too deep? What do you mean? Like in the last 30 minutes? Well, we defended in a deep block,” the exasperated England boss said.
“That’s what you do if you defend in a block. You defend in a block. We were not active enough, we could not escape the deep block but if you defend in a deep block, everyone defends in a deep block.
“That is what team spirit, togetherness, and mentality is translated to in football terms.
“We defend as a 10 and as 11, and if we are pushed back to a deep block, Harry defends in a deep block.
“This is what he did for moments in the first half. The difference is that we pushed back and we stepped out and we found the triggers to come out of the deep block.
“But we do everything together as a team. The team spirit, the togetherness, the mentality that this team built in the last six and a half weeks is not to be questioned and it showed even in defending.
“We became too passive in the last 30 minutes. We could not get hold of the ball, we could not find duels anymore. This is the next step that we want to take and from there we go.”
Speaking at a reception on Friday, Trump also talked about the moment he asked FIFA to review the one-match suspension of USA striker Folarin Balogun.
Balogun was set to miss his side’s last-16 match against Belgium following a straight red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina before FIFA controversially suspended the ban for 12 months.
Trump said: “I was forced to call Gianni. I said ‘Gianni, I’d like to make a recommendation. Let the guy in the game!’ No, I didn’t say that. I said I’d like to wage a complaint.
“And actually I had no idea what was going to happen, but you know it is so much better the way it worked out because there is no controversy.”
Infantino said the World Cup had exceeded expectations.
“The American dream, Mr President, came to reality,” he said. “We united the world in America.
“This is not just the greatest World Cup of all time, it is the greatest human, social and cultural event that mankind has ever witnessed and we are all part of it and for this I thank you very much, Mr President.”
Published: by Radio NewsHub