Thomas Tuchel delivered a dressing room dressing down at half-time that transformed England’s World Cup opener — a 4-2 victory over Croatia in Arlington, Texas — and drew comparisons to Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous 'hairdryer treatment'.
England went in at the interval level after Petar Musa’s equaliser, despite twice taking the lead through Harry Kane. Kane is now level with Gary Lineker on 10 World Cup goals, the most of any England player. But the performance was disjointed. Tuchel’s assistant, Anthony Barry, gave a scathing assessment on ITV: 'A complicated and confusing first half from us, really. A lot of nervous energy… we fall back into some fearful patterns.'
“Thomas Tuchel's half-time hairdryer treatment inspired England to a 4-2 World Cup win over Croatia.”
Inside the dressing room, Tuchel did not mince words. 'I just said even if we lose, it will not change my perception of the last 17 days,' he revealed afterwards. 'Let’s do it our way. We’re too focused on the result, too focused on protecting what we don’t have.'
The message landed. Within 90 seconds of the restart, Jude Bellingham latched onto a superb Elliot Anderson through-ball to put England back in front. Substitute Marcus Rashford then made the points safe five minutes from time, rolling the ball home after a nice combination with Bukayo Saka. Bellingham, who Tuchel described as 'a very good player, he deserved to start', was central to the revival.
Fans on X revelled in the turnaround. 'Second half was a lot better! Think Tuchel had the hairdryer out at half time,' one wrote. 'Very impressive hairdryer treatment from Tuchel,' another agreed. A third claimed: 'Thomas Tuchel pulled hairdryer out in 2nd half on #England players.'
Tuchel himself praised the reaction. 'Good second half, good reaction,' he told ITV. 'We deserved to win but it was emotional. It took us a while to get going, but we did get going and that’s a positive.'
One concern: Declan Rice limped off during the game. Tuchel said: 'Normally I would never take Declan out but…' — leaving the sentence unfinished, a hint of worry ahead of England’s next Group L match against Ghana on Tuesday.