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Michael Owen did hold back on social media after England's defeat to Argentina at the 2026 World Cup.
England took the lead in their semi-final clash with the reigning champions when Anthony Gordon tapped home from close range 10 minutes after half-time.
Instead of searching for another goal and continuing to play how they had been playing, England dropped deeper and deeper as they looked to preserve their lead.
In the 72nd minute, Thomas Tuchel substituted off Gordon in place of a defender, Ezri Konsa. He then took off midfielder Declan Rice and replaced him with another defender, Nico O'Reilly.
These decisions proved disastrous as Argentina equalised with five minutes remaining through Enzo Fernandez. With so many defenders on the pitch, England could not go forward and Lautaro Martinez scored the winner for his side in the second minute of extra-time.
Michael Owen Posts Strong Tweets After England 1-2 Argentina
Former England striker Owen couldn't resist making his feelings clear on social media after the match. The 45-year-old did not mince his words as he called out for England for a lack of 'courage and bravery'. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter):
"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 3 defenders at 1-0 up. What message does that send? I wrote it in my Daily Mail column after the Mexico game. Until we understand that courage and bravery is controlling possession under pressure and not booting / heading it up the field 40 yards then this will always be the end result."
His post has caused a major stir on X, attracting 2.8 million views, 63k 'likes' and 9.8k reposts at the time of writing. He said in another tweet:
"Our lads are so genuine. They can hold their heads up high. Consistently getting to the latter stages of major competitions. I’m convinced that with a bit more tactical nous, we’d be European Champions (v Italy at Wembley) and on the verge of becoming World Champions."
Thomas Tuchel Takes Responsibility After Argentina Defeat
Tuchel has been blasted by many following England's loss. He has taken responsibility for the defeat, but he admitted he has no regrets about the decisions he made. He said, per the Guardian:
“We decided to go to a back five because the gaps were far too open. Argentina played with more risk, played with more rhythm and played with the feeling maybe that they had nothing to lose any more, which freed them up and pulled us back. Because we obviously played suddenly with a feeling that we had a lot to lose. Of course the responsibility is on the coach and if it doesn’t go well it’s easy to say it was wrong.”
He added: “What cost us today was that we were not active enough in any structure. I can understand these discussions are out there and of course a million coaches after the game know it better. You can discuss this with a million coaches. I have to make a decision on the pitch. It’s how I analyse the match and I take the responsibility.
“At the moment no regrets. The team gave everything and we were very very close. We deserved to be up 1-0. We played one of our better matches, maybe our best match under the circumstances. The team was top – we couldn’t bring it over the line.”
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