Cristian Romero has named who England fans should blame for England’s World Cup exit – and it’s not Thomas Tuchel or Jordan Pickford. The head coach has come in for scathing criticism for his negative tactics after Anthony Gordon put England in front early in the second half.

After a series of defensive substitutions, Enzo Fernandez equalised in the 85th minute with a long-range effort, which some believe Pickford should have kept out. With England in full defensive mode, Argentina continued to press and it was no surprise when Lautaro Martinez headed home in added time. However, according to Romero, it was Gary Neville who inspired him against the Three Lions. The Tottenham defender revealed that both he and Lisandro Martinez drew motivation from Neville’s “stupid” remarks ahead of the semi-final.

Neville recently branded the duo the “best worst centre halves in the world.” He subsequently predicted that England would find the net at least twice against Argentina, saying on The Overlap: “I don’t see how we won’t score at least two goals. Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martínez seem to give away a goal between them in every match.

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“Then you see them again and suddenly they’re scoring goals, winning every header, and appearing everywhere. There’s something that happens to them when they put on that shirt. It’s incredible.

“I call them the best-worst centre-back pairing in the world because at times they are absolutely extraordinary, and the next instant they go from the sublime to the ridiculous.”

After the match, Romero hit back, telling DSports: “Lisandro and me, we were on fire before the game because of what Gary Neville said.

“In England, they love to speak before. We send him a big hug. I hope I’ll not be like him when I retire. I will not criticise the players. The only thing that I hope for is that when I retire, I am not that stupid.”

However, most England fans and pundits put the blame for the late collapse squarely at Tuchel’s door. Wayne Rooney said: “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?'”

Tuchel’s changes were branded a “coaching catastrophe” by former Blackburn and Celtic striker Chris Sutton, while Gary Lineker called the tactics “unfathomable.”

He said: “I found it absolutely unfathomable that, if your tactic is to sit everyone deep, you do that against the greatest player ever to play football. I think he’s just cementing that game after game after game.

“Most goals in the World Cup, most assists in the World Cup. And he moves to the right, and you play a back five, and you still don’t go and get tight to him. Just put someone on him. He had so much space. He just whipped ball after ball after ball into the box.”