England boss Thomas Tuchel says the World Cup hydration breaks take away a “characteristic of the beautiful game”.
The three-minute breaks at the mid-point of either half were brought in by FIFA to help teams deal with the hot weather, but they have been widely criticized by fans and players across the first 10 days of the tournament.
They are held in matches where heat has not been an issue and will be again enforced in Boston on Wednesday when England play Ghana in what is expected to be a deluge of rain.
Tuchel enjoys the ability to get information to his players, but says he has negative feelings overall.
“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.
“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.
“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. It 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.”
