#PLStories- Thomas Tuchel on Chelsea defeat, late signings, injuries, squad mentality, more #CHELSEAFC
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Frank Lampard
Thomas, what do you put that defeat down to?
“I don’t have the answer to every question now so quickly after the match. But obviously, we are not tough enough to win these matches at the moment, away. It’s a bit the same story like in Leeds. In Leeds, we thought the problem was that we did not score in the first 20, 25 minutes. They put us off balance with two goals in two minutes, and we could not find answers. Today we scored, so we thought everything was okay, but one set piece again, one sloppy defending again, and we are off balance. And today, we did not react to it; we were lucky not to concede the third goal. We were not tough enough as a team to react or to push it over the line for us.
Did tonight’s performance highlight that you need a focal point in the attack?
“This is totally the wrong question to ask today for attack. It’s defending, these goals have nothing to do with the attack. We scored, we had chances enough, we can have a clean sheet, we can stay at 1-1. We are not tough enough as a team. It’s not a question of striker, no striker or what we have upfront. It’s the wrong question for me at the moment. Raheem [Sterling] is just one player, and as a team, we are not strong enough at the moment. It’s the wrong question.”
After Tottenham, you were very happy with the performance and working with this squad. Has that bubble burst a bit, and do you have to get players in during the final two days of the transfer window?
Do you know what it reminded me of? Juventus last season. We played a fantastic match at Stamford Bridge, and after that, we had Chilly off for eight months and Kante out for three months. It was the same against Tottenham – we had a fantastic performance. After that, our key players say goodbye for six weeks in N’Golo. Then it’s red cards, it’s again a red card for Conor, Ruben goes off injured, Mateo Kovacic is injured for eight weeks since pre-season. This is what it reminds me of – Reece James is off for the game with illness too. It’s key player after key player. It’s a fact, and with our demands and the ambition we have it’s simply like that. But it’s even more important if these key players are missing that we need to show a different mentality. It’s not enough at the moment to win at Leeds and Southampton. There’s no shame in it; we are humble enough to admit we can lose football matches, although we hate it. But it’s too easy to push us off the track, too easy to win challenges, too easy to bully us.”
Once you get those players back, do you think you have enough in the squad?
“Do we know we have it? I know what squads the other teams have and what the schedule is. Yesterday we had 16 players in training, so I cannot dream about what will happen when everyone is back. I just have what we have on the training pitch, and this is not a lot at the moment.”
For both goals, the defending was poor…
“Exactly. Soft, soft, soft defending. What stops l that? Pure mentality. Stop it by pure mentality. Stop it with defending mentality. There is no superiority for the opponent. There is no need to give shots away, there is no need. Just toughen up as a team and show a different mentality. It’s my assessment today. I don’t like to talk about it normally because you can’t prove it with data, the body positioning, tactical position in the field or whatever. But it’s like this. Both goals are cheap goals, soft goals, and should not happen if you expect to win a Premier League match in the evening at an away stadium. We need to be tough than that.”
Are you worried about the games coming up, given the injuries?
“No, I’m not worried about the games coming up. The number of games? Yes, because I know what we’re dealing with. Worried…no. I don’t fear any opponent as I know what we are capable of. But this up and down, this face we showed today, and Leeds is not the face with which we can expect to get a lot of points away from home.”
It’s been a turbulent six months, do you think that is still having an impact on that?
“Maybe, maybe. But the line is so thin between excuses and explanations, so I better not go down this road because I don’t want to give any chance for anybody – myself, staff players – any room for excuses. We need to find solutions. What will help is the closing of the transfer window. We will know then who has the full commitment, what we demand, what role everybody needs to play and fulfil. And then everybody, including myself, needs to step up to a new level of performance because these are ok performances, not a disaster, but they are ok and ok can never be enough for us.”
Thomas Tuchel lamented his side’s ‘soft defending’ following Chelsea’s loss to Southampton at St Mary’s.
Thomas Tuchel said: “Obviously we’re not tough enough to win these matches at the moment, away. It was the same story at Leeds. At Leeds, the problem was that we did not score in the first 20-25 minutes, and they pushed us off balance in two minutes with two goals. We could not find any answers. We thought we at least had answers in the first few minutes of the second half. Today, we scored, so obviously, everything was okay, but one set-piece again. One sloppy defending again. Then we are off balance, and today we did not react to it, we were lucky not to concede a third goal. We were not tough enough as a team to react or push it over the line for us.”
Thomas Tuchel added: “Soft, soft, soft defending. What stops that? Pure mentality, stop it by pure mentality. Spot it with defending intelligently. There is no superiority for the opponent, there is no need to give shots away, there is no need. Just toughen up. As a team, show a different mentality. It’s my assessment today, I don’t like to talk about it normally because you cannot prove it with data, or the body position or the tactical position in the field. It’s like this. Both goals are cheap goals, soft goals and should not happen if you expect to win a Premier League match on an evening in an away stadium.”
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