Thomas Tuchel
Thomas, what are your feelings about that game?
“It was a totally wild and open game in the first half – already a 2-2 after we came back twice. We had a good start but again gave the first goal away, which is impossible to do these things in consecutive matches. But we’re doing it. We came back twice, and we scored another two in the second half, unfortunately for the wrong side. It’s a level of mistakes, the number of mistakes in consecutive games here at home, it’s impossible at this kind of level. You don’t see this. It’s simply impossible, but we’re doing this at the moment, and you cannot win football games like this.”
Does tonight’s performance highlight Antonio Rudiger’s importance to this team?
“We conceded seven goals with Toni against Brentford and Real Madrid, that answers the question. It’s not about individual players. A defensive performance is a team performance, and an offensive performance is a team performance. You need to have the tactics right, which is doubtful I had this right, and you need the team selection right, again it’s doubtful I had this right. Then it’s a game for the players. They get full praise when they do it when they did it for the last three matches. And they have to face the reality that it’s impossible to win matches if you make this amount of mistakes of this calibre. It’s simply impossible. I don’t see it in any other matches, but I see it now in consecutive matches of our games, and it has to stop.”
Andreas Christensen made the error in the first half, and then you substituted him – and he wasn’t on the bench in the second half. Can you explain your thinking with the change?
“He said he cannot continue, so I think he had some problems. I don’t take a player out because he makes one mistake. To say the pitch is difficult to play here it maybe sounds like an excuse, but it is a very, very difficult pitch that we have here. It’s not in our favour. The ball bounces very awkwardly in front of Andreas when he wants to play this ball. But still, we had the same mistake against Real Madrid that cost us the next round of the Champions League, and this one cost us the next match. I can’t remember when we got two goals like this.”
You used to be so tight at the back, why is this now happening?
“Look at the penalty, and it is an unbelievable goal from our ball possession. There are no tactics behind that. We have three ball losses in ten seconds. Then we do a foul where there’s not even the slightest danger. We foul a person, it is a penalty, and we rob ourselves of six minutes for an equaliser. What is there to analyse? There’s nothing to analyse.”
Is it concentration, for example?
“It must be something, but it is also possible to don’t do it because we proved it in the last three matches, and we thought we learned our lesson from Brentford and Real Madrid but obviously not.”
After the game, Cesar Azpilicueta was seen arguing with a fan. Is that ok with you?
“I was not part of it. I saw it, but honestly, I can understand the fan.”
What happens if we don’t sort this out, what can…
“Of course not. How can you make three, two, and one big mistake in matches? How can you? You cannot?”
There seemed to be some boos when Romelu Lukaku was brought off?
“Maybe it was the Arsenal fans.”
It seemed to be coming from the Chelsea end?
“Ok, you heard it, so you need to ask the people.”
