I didn't want to react too quickly to the knee-jerk reaction that, as always, has followed England's knockout. But I've spoken to a lot of people, and my impression is that the responsibility for what happened has to be shared between the players and the manager.
And if they reach that conclusion themselves, they will be much healthier for it than if everybody simply piles more pressure onto the manager. A football team is a complex entity, and a football match is a complex moment. There are more explanations for an outcome than pointing the finger at one person.
That, looking for The Culprit, is the usual conclusion whenever England go out of a tournament. It would be good, if possible, to come out of that vicious circle.
I was sent a take from someone who isn't English but knows the culture of English football intimately, having played many years in the Premier League. Take it or leave it, but it connects to what Tuchel himself said about the team being passive.
His argument, in essence, is that England can't function as a collective because they never quite grasp solidarity, in the fullest sense of the word - not just running for each other, but taking responsibility and leading.
At the moment the game turns, players start looking after themselves rather than each other. Nobody wants to be singled out, so nobody steps forward, and the team ends up directionless because nobody wants to own a potential catastrophe. After the Argentina game you couldn't point to a single man at fault, which in a strange way is a relief for the players: it becomes a collective failure, and Tuchel absorbs it instead.
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Compare that with Messi, barely able to run, still finding the energy to drift to the edge of the box all second half. Or Enzo Fernández, ghosting into his favourite shooting position until one finally went in. That's what taking responsibility looks like when your legs have nothing left to give.
Expectations becomes part of the problem. It's the same pattern before a ball is even kicked: a run of good results breeds excess confidence, that confidence makes it harder to see the cracks forming, and when it goes wrong the search for a culprit becomes almost automatic. It's a cycle, and cycles don't break themselves.
There's also a coaching question that shouldn't be ignored. I doubt Tuchel was unaware of the historical shackles that have undone England before, or of the fact that Argentina fight to the very end regardless of the scoreline. Knowing all of that, he still used a back five and loaded the pitch with defensive options. Did he feel that is what the team, already stuck in fear perhaps, needed?
It seemed Tuchel wanted the players to push up, but they kept going deep. Perhaps realising where the team was, he decided to protect it. In any case, two different ways of reading the same moment - and that disassociation between bench and pitch is exactly the kind of thing that stops teams progressing.
If it had worked, he would have been a folk hero but that is the thin line you walk in football. The FA got Tuchel because he does not care that much what people think and he has the ability to analyse his mistakes, and what players he needs next. So that is another good thing considering the backlash.
England are in fact closer than it feels right now. This was never solely a Southgate problem, and it isn't solely a Tuchel one either. It's hard to see clearly in the immediate disappointment, but England are living a special era, and part of that is learning how to compete in the hardest games of all - which is exactly what this was.
None of that should obscure the bigger picture, and everyone is responsible for it. The overconfidence England carried into this game came from a flawed reading of what this Argentina side actually is. These are competitive animals who have built their entire World Cup around giving Messi one last chance to win it, and who will use every tool available to get over the line. They have won the last four tournaments they entered. How can you undervalue that?
There is another way to read Sunday’s match between Argentina and Spain. They are the two most successful teams of the 21st century. So a fitting final for the biggest World Cup ever.
