Thomas Tuchel criticises unpopular World Cup hydration breaks for changing football’s ‘identity’

England boss Thomas Tuchel has added his voice to the chorus criticising hydration breaks at this summer’s World Cup, saying they take away a “characteristic of the beautiful game”. Fifa has introduced compulsory three-minute breaks at the halfway point of each half, in theory to help teams cope with sweltering temperatures across much of North America throughout the tournament. However, the fact that they are applied to games regardless of temperature and the way they break up the flow of games, as well as provide opportunity for yet more advertising, has proved unpopular with everyone from fans to coaches, including Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa. England’s second Group L match against Ghana is set to be played amidst a downpour in Boston, but with the hydration breaks enforced nonetheless. Tuchel said: “I think that it interrupts and changes the identity of a football match much more than I thought,” he said. “Of course, I had hydration breaks before when it was really, really hot and needed, but they were shorter. “They were just in a few matches. Now it is a point of fairness to every team. Now it breaks the match almost in four quarters and it changes the characteristic of the match more than I thought.” He admitted that the opportunity the breaks provide for team staff to pass information to players was useful, but insisted he would prefer games to be played normally. The German said: “I like it as a coach to have influence and have my team together but overall, I think I like football when it is played in one go, in one half. England take on Ghana on Tuesday in their second group stage game (Reuters) “It builds a momentum, it is part of the game. It is hard to build momentum and hard to keep the momentum. This is the battle on the field between the players on the field, it plays out in a longer period of time. “It just adds to the characteristic of the beautiful game. [The breaks] takes away from it. But on a point of fairness, of course, it makes sense that everyone gets it.” Heavy rain is forecast in Boston on Wednesday, with a water break of a different kind looking more likely than a need to rehydrate the players. However, Tuchel will use the time with his players in a different way. “We will try to use it, of course,” he said. “We have a plan in mind, but not too much of it, because I don’t want to limit myself in the response to what the game needs. “I want to use my intuition and the experience, and to actually what’s happening. So I want always to be able to actually react to what’s happening on the pitch.”