Timo Werner says injury was the reason he didn’t take a penalty in Chelsea’s third round Carabao Cup shootout victory over Aston Villa this evening.
Timo Werner said: “I had some pain in my calf but with only three substitutes, I couldn’t go off. But when you have fit players on the pitch, it’s better they shoot than me today.”
Thomas Tuchel heavily rotated his side for tonight’s game. There were ten changes made in total to the Chelsea side, with only Kepa Arrizabalaga keeping his place in the side that started the victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. That led to a somewhat disjointed first-half display but the Chelsea head coach admitted he expected that to be the case, although it didn’t stop him from becoming increasingly irritated throughout the contest.
Thomas Tuchel said: “Two days [is how long we worked with the team]. We knew after the Tottenham game who we wanted to get 90 minutes into the legs of. So two days and we worked on the same principles. It was the same structure so we don’t make it too complicated or unfair [on the players]. We trust them anyway. A lot of them can play against City or Juventus and it was necessary they get competitive minutes in their legs. What we demanded was intensity, energy, attitude, to try their very best. Maybe we didn’t expect the most fluid and precise attacking game from the start but it got better and better because the guys did well on this and it’s a perfect evening.”
