Thomas Tuchel
What is the latest with the injuries to Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner?
“I don’t know too much more than you. Romelu twisted his ankle with the foul in the box and Timo has a hamstring injury. It will take a while for both of them. We need more examinations to be more precise but they will be out for some matches.
Do you regret not resting Romelu now given his injury?
“If I knew before I wouldn’t have done it. But you can’t know it before and it was necessary that he was on the pitch and he started very strong. I spoke with him about the situation, that I think he carries a bit of mental fatigue around with him. I think that is also normal but he is our number nine and is our reference upfront. The best thing against mental fatigue is a goal and we knew we could be the dominant team. We knew we wanted to build our attack today with Mason and Timo around him and him as the reference. I had the strong belief that in a Champions League match he could turn things around in terms of scoring and being decisive, which he did because he was super strong in our start. He took the foul and without him maybe it’s not 2-0 So I don’t regret it. It’s not a muscle injury or because of physical fatigue. He is a little bit overplayed, this is my opinion and maybe I’m not even right. But this was a moment to give him confidence and let him play. I don’t regret it, things like this can happen. It was bad luck.”
What did you make of the performances of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Kai Havertz after they came on and do they have a chance to make an impact now?
“Always, always a chance and it is always necessary to prove a point. They can prove a point now so we will have some games without Romelu and Timo so everyone is invited to join the race for minutes on the pitch. When they are on the pitch, they need to show their hunger and determination to be decisive and be in the box. This is how it is and they did it today but there’s still room to improve and on Saturday we need the same hunger and determination from whoever starts for us because we need goals to win matches. We need to find solutions without Romelu and Timo, that’s clear. Everyone will join the race to be decisive for us.”
Was the team you picked today evidence of how important a win was today after losing to Juve?
“We take the games step by step, there is no more important game than the game we play on this day. Jorgi [Jorginho] didn’t play against Brentford, we went with Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] who was there during the international break. The guys on the pitch deserve to start, there are no gifts or resting players because the next game is more important. We pick the best line-up in our belief to have the best chance to beat Brentford and then we pick the best line-up on this day to beat whoever arrives in a Champions League match. The next is like this. Saturday, 12.30, we will again pick the best team. We will look at the data and be very professional in recovery. It will be easy preparation: we want the same performance again. This will be one of the shortest pre-match meetings in my history of coaching because we want every the same as tonight: energy, effort, deep runs, ball wins. We have the chance to switch some positions, to demand from everybody physically the same input and then let’s see.”
