Thomas Tuchel’s frustrated character on the touchline wasn’t a good message for Chelsea fans. His annoyance during the damaging 4-0 loss to Arsenal was clear to see and his statement after the game was just as worrying. The German himself admitted that he’s a “huge fan of a strong pre-season in everything: atmosphere, feeling, performance, belief,” something that has severely been lacking from Chelsea’s tour of America, at least on the pitch. To highlight the position Tuchel has found himself in,
Thomas Tuchel said: “I don’t know if I ever lost a match in pre-season 4-0. I can’t remember not winning two matches in a row in pre-season. I am superstitious but not in a way that I say bad pre-season has to mean a bad season. That makes no sense to me. I am in it, a part of it, and need to find solutions.”
He is a coach that has built a career on creating innovative ways out of tough spots and given that Chelsea still posses a core group of extremely talented players alongside an expected surge on the transfer market for additional recruits, it would be unfair to say that Chelsea have regressed. Speaking towards the end of the campaign,
Thomas Tuchel said: “We have constantly been in the top three in the toughest league, we now compete with maybe the best teams to ever play in his league [City and Liverpool]. From there we go, put it into perspective and there is no need to lose sleep after this season but there is a lot of ambition in us that is not satisfied. I think it is good to admit it, not to be too worried it that we don’t do this. I don’t know where we are from day one [next season]. What I can promise is that I will be here – if I can promise that – and I will be here with full energy and positive energy no matter what. We will still work for Chelsea and I refuse to think of negative scenarios. We will be competitive, on which level we will see. On how the delay [completing the takeover] and sanctions will affect us, there is a risk. It will be very difficult to make up for the disadvantage, given the situation of the other two teams: City and Liverpool, who are already improving their squads and set one benchmark after another in all aspects of the game.”
As it has played out, Tuchel is in the exact situation that he foresaw. Outgoings haven’t materialised making true squad building hard, attitudes throughout are therefore mixed and causing problems. Business wasn’t done early due to the sanctions and now Chelsea have a lot to do in two weeks to be competitive.
