Asked how he felt about the final 35 minutes of the game, when he had time to think, Tuchel said he felt “the same thing – that we were too passive.”
“If you’re asking if I regret my decisions, if that’s the question, then I don’t regret my decisions,” he added.
“I felt that the dynamics in the match were changing. And I tried to help my team…
“I made some decisions, trusting my gut, my intuition, my experience, trusting my competitiveness, and I made a decision to help the team and get results. We didn’t get any results.
“Therefore, of course, I take responsibility for these decisions. I would regret it if I didn’t help. I would regret it if we didn’t react.”
Tuchel said he did not want to participate in “such a game” about who is to blame.
“No problem,” he said. “This is the deal you sign up for, but I won’t be part of it.
“For me there is no one to blame. If someone needs to be blamed, I take responsibility. I’m the head coach.”
Asked why England’s top scorer Kane played so deep in the latter stages of the game, he replied: “What do you mean? Like in the last 30 minutes?”
“Why did we defend with a deep block. Well, that’s what you need to do if you defend with a block. We weren’t active enough.”
Tuchel said Argentina “played with a lot of momentum after our goal.”
“They had a lot of changes in attack and a lot of attacking positions,” the 52-year-old added.
“We couldn’t stop the crosses and we couldn’t stop those running into the box.
“So we decided to play a back five to have more width in the field and to be closer to the players who are serving.
“We just became too passive, and Argentina, by the way, found a different gear and found total flow.
“We played in the semi-finals against the reigning world champions.
“We led 85 minutes with a score of 1:0. We played against the best player in the world and lost 2-1, which was very painful.”
Tuchel was asked if he had looked at the data which showed England’s fitness level against Argentina was lower than against DR Congo at the same stadium earlier in the tournament.
He said that “even if we don’t want to admit it because it feels like an excuse,” the 10-man game against Mexico at the height of Estadio Azteca and the heat against Norway in Miami “cost us more than we probably thought.”
“The players literally gave their best physically (in) every match. If you see those numbers going down, there is a reason for it because the motivation has been through the roof,” he said.