That disastrous final 20 minutes against Argentina in this summer’s World Cup semi-final is one of the most emotive, controversial and discussed passages of play in England’s long history. Thomas Tuchel sending on a centre-back Ezri Konsa for Anthony Gordon, who'd just scored, felt an act of surrender. Taking off England's most effective attacking outlet. Going to five at the back. Gordon (below in training at SGP yesterday) is always an honest and insightful talker. Now the Barcelona winger opens up on what happened in Atlanta. Was Tuchel to blame? Were the England players? What do fans say to him now? Is there a scar? So… Was he surprised to be subbed? “Yes, I was, being totally honest only because I’d just scored. I'm really good when I play off adrenaline and when I score, I normally don't have many bad games because I get into an untouchable mode of confidence. It makes me feel on top of the world, especially in that moment on that stage. I felt really good. But, as a winger, I come off most games, it's normal. It's usually the position that is targeted first for the substitutions because the players on the bench in your position are usually quick and really good. Obviously that substitution was different.” It was different. It was a defensive change, centre-back for winger. So were England too defensive in those fateful final 20 minutes? “It's really difficult. That same mentality was the reason we progressed through the previous two rounds (against Mexico and Norway). It's difficult in life to ever change something that's working. The Mexico game was by far the best experience I've ever had in my life. That set us up in a way. Because the red card (to Jarell Quansah) made us show a different side to us (backs to the wall). We weren’t so much the team that wanted to play any more. We needed to really fight to get the victory. That probably became our MO a bit too much then for the next two games. Ultimately, that didn't work for us in the semi-final. There's no telling if we’d stayed with the four at the back we still wouldn't have lost that game. In hindsight, everything's easier.” Was Tuchel’s messaging in that final hydration break clear? “It was difficult because the messaging we had all along we built ourselves with the mentality we were showing in training. I felt we weren't performing in the matches like we did in training. Because if we did, we would have dominated everyone, which wasn't the case. Every match was quite close. Even that Norway game, I didn't feel like they were really at our level. So it makes a lot of sense to me why the manager would then go more safe and more defensive and really tune into what got us through the previous two rounds in that moment. It might not to other people, but it does to me being a part of the group.” Should or could the players have done more? “I felt as players we could have done more to take the initiative, to control the game. If we do that, the manager doesn't make the decision. Everyone likes to blame the manager because that's football, managers always take responsibility but one person shouldn't be responsible for a million different decisions happening at one time. For me, we had the best team. We had the best players on the pitch in that semi-final. And in the last 20 minutes, we didn't play the best football. That's something the manager can't really affect from the sideline. As a group everyone together should take responsibility. We shouldn't try and blame one man who's obviously trying his best to win the game and win the Cup for us all.” Will he get over Atlanta? “No, I don't think so, being totally honest. Any time you lose anything of value in life, whether a person or something like a match or anything you really want to have or win or anything of large value, you'll never be the same person. It leaves a scar. But that scar doesn't always have to be a negative one. You can be a better person for it. You can learn different things about the world, about yourself. That's the way I’m looking at it and hopefully me and the team will get better for it. Now that we've had that experience, probably the next time we're in that position, we'll go the other way. That scar doesn't have to be a negative one because it might lead us to victory in the next tournaments.” Tuchel says 99.9% of fans he meets don’t mention the disastrous changes in the second half. Has he found the same? “I'll probably agree with the manager. More people have spoken to me about the France game (the third-place play-off won 6-4 in Miami), rather than the Argentina game. The France game was quite a tremendous watch from a fan's point of view. Obviously as an English person it wasn't really that important because of what we just went through and what we all felt at the time. But I tend to agree with him.” Tuchel held a debrief on Tuesday for the players when they reported to St George’s Park. How did it go? “Quite a positive meeting. The coach was just saying ‘thank you’ for a lot of things. As far as the summer goes, it was the best of my life. I had some of the best experiences. I couldn't be any more happy and proud. It was just a contrast: I've never felt better in the Argentina game than when I scored. I've also never felt worse than 20 minutes later. It was really important we got that out the way.” #ENG