Soccer: Tuchel Calls for Later Seasons After World Cups

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – New Paris St Germain coach Thomas Tuchel fielded a virtually unrecognizable side in a 5-1 pre-season friendly defeat against Arsenal on Saturday, forced to cope with a raft of players involved in the latter stages of the World Cup until next week.

Largely outclbaded by an almost full -strength Premier League side, Tuchel expressed concern for the Singapore match Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe.

"Everybody loves the World Cup and we want to watch it, but it has a big impact on the beginning of our season," Tuchel, who replaced Unai Emery at the helm of the French winners in May, told reporters .

"There must be a solution in this world cup years, that the season must start. There is no reason for the league to end in May. We can play until June or July of the next year.

"Everyone loves the game and we want to see the best players, but let them stay there – they are the show – not us coaches. It's a game and we've got to protect them. "

" Right now, we're doing it on a big hit.

Paris St Germain play Atletico Madrid in their second match of the tournament on Monday before a French Super Cup meeting against AS Monaco in Shenzhen next week, ahead of a Ligue 1 opener against Caen on Aug. 12.

Tuchel added that these teams relied on the face of the World Cup.

"When I was the coach at Mainz in the Bundesliga, a small club in Germany, we always wanted to play the big teams every two years, right after a major tournament, whether it was a World Cup or European Championships," the 44-year-old said.

"We were prepared with a full squad, sometimes with a full pre-season. We are ready to go from the first minute, so strange results can happen at this time of the year. "