Thomas Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel has said that everyone at Chelsea wins and loses together after Saturday’s disappointing 1-0 defeat to Manchester City. The Blues suffered their first loss of the season, with Gabriel Jesus’ deflected shot the difference at Stamford Bridge. Much of the analysis after the game has focused on Tuchel’s negative tactics and the overall poor performance of the players as the hosts failed to register a shot on target for the first time in the Premier League under the German coach. In his post-match press conference, Tuchel admitted that everyone, from the coaching staff to the players, weren’t up to scratch.
Thomas Tuchel said: “Of course, we are not happy with how we played and the decisions that we took. You need to be at the very best level in all parts of the game and we were clearly not. We are together in this so we need the best level from the coach and the best level from the players and we will look into it now with all the self-reflection that is needed. Our decision making, our passing, our dribbling was not good enough to win.”
Tuchel was also keen to emphasis just how good City were, with Pep Guardiola nailing his tactics and team selection to finally get the better over his rival, whom he had already lost to three times in 2021, including in the Champions League final.
Thomas Tuchel said: “In the end, we also have to accept that City were better than us today. They were in a better shape, sharper. It is about making people under-perform, making our opponents under-perform. City did that to us. I never felt confident to relieve the pressure with short passes, I was never fully confident to decide for long balls because we have Romelu up front where we can put also long balls. It gets more and more difficult and today when we escaped the pressure which was hard enough, we took bad decisions to our strikers because when we played to our strikers they took bad decisions with the first contact, lost the ball, so you lose more and more belief. Without that belief, the genuine belief and confidence, it helps your opponent. Overall, it was a deserved win [for City].”
If the defeat wasn’t bad enough, Chelsea also lost Reece James to injury early in the game, and it is touch and go as to whether Mason Mount will recover to play against Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Thomas Tuchel said: “It will be a matter of the end of hours if he makes it or not. I absolutely don’t know.”
There was, however, some good news to come out of the loss, with Ruben Loftus Cheek impressing Tuchel in his short cameo after getting subbed on toward the end.
Thomas Tuchel said: “I was happy with him. He played against Zenit, he played against Aston Villa, now he has 15 minutes and he deserved it. We do not reward without deserving.
