Thomas Tuchel
That’s the tenth game this season you’ve taken the lead and conceded an equaliser, what’s going wrong there?
“I don’t know. It’s just a fact. Today we were not in the lead at half time. We could’ve been in the lead at half time, easy, but we were not. We have to be careful now – myself included – when we point the finger because it happens again. We have a huge chance to sit here after the same game and talk about a 3-0 and how impressive things are when we miss many players. It’s a huge possibility because it’s just one free-kick and we got punished again. If we look back, it seems it happens too often. We need to consider that when looking back you can make mistakes in analysing and finding patterns that are maybe not there. But you can be sure we will not look away. The dressing room is very disappointed and I’m very disappointed, of course.”
Did you feel the game should’ve gone ahead, did you want it called off?
“We didn’t discuss one second about it. I don’t even know the rules about it and I’m not interested in knowing them. I do what I do: prepare my team. We knew at 12pm who was ready to play and who was out and the focus is always on the guys who play. If a game gets postponed or not, that is none of my business. I don’t get involved.”
You brought on Trevoh Chalobah when you needed a goal, was that a sign you were struggling without so many attacking players?
“We played with Saul as a number and nine and we brought on Trevoh for maybe a goal from a set-piece because he is very strong at set-pieces. It was a chance we had so we took the decisions and trying to do the best with the situation.”
How concerned are you becoming with the Premier League title race, are mistakes costing you?
“I’m concerned we have too many players out, six or seven players. This at the moment is the problem, one of the key problems. You know about the situation in central midfield for eight weeks and again all of our strikers are out, we had this situation four weeks ago where Romelu and Timo were injured for weeks. So we struggle, obviously, with this and at the same point, we’re always focused on the solution and guys we have on the pitch. We were strong enough today and I’m not so sure right now why we get punished like this. I see teams concede many more chances than we do, teams concede many more half-chances than we do, we conceded nothing and it was a draw. I think we have a huge possibility with a 3-0 for is and it would be a fair result. We can’t change that anymore and that is why we have to find the balance in being honest, critical with each other, but also accept that sometimes we get punished for not a lot.”
With certain clubs losing key players to Covid, do you think the integrity of the Premier League is affected?
“Maybe it can’t be [level playing field] because I think there are certain rules why games are postponed. I have trust the rules are the same for everyone. When we play, we play to win. We play with joy and we were happy we played today. It is a pleasure to play, a gift to play, to still be able to do what we love. We love to work hard and play hard with the team. We pushed the guys, tried to be positive about it, and I was happy with the team that was on the pitch. I think it was good enough to win the game. Do we like to have all our players available? Yes, of course. Do we suffer without them? Yes, for sure. For me – maybe it is, I don’t know – but there is never one reason responsible for the lack of results we clearly have right now. The most important thing is to stay together, not lose focus on sport political decisions. We must stay with us and keep going. It’s like this.”
The form at the moment, is it a blip or a rut?
“I would be more concerned if we were totally out of form, conceding the first goal and then struggling to come back. I would be more concerned, although maybe it would be easier to analyse. I don’t think it’s so easy to analyse our situation. If you look at it, West Ham, I’ve seen teams have huge problems. [Our defeat] came, more or less, almost out of nothing, all three goals. Then you can continue.
Do you think the Premier League should pause to deal with the latest surge in Covid cases? Have your say
“Against Leeds, everything was under control. We played a very good first half, a good 15 minutes, then we score and the game gets out of our hands. Today is a freak result for this kind of match. So where to start? Where to point the finger. I don’t think it’s too easy to analyse the situation. There are some facts we concede too many goals – which wasn’t the case today – that we give away too many leading positions. This is part of that but you can be sure we’re looking very honestly and very critically. For me, though, it’s not so easy to analyse why we’re dropping points. It was the same against Burnley at home. We did not deserve, the investment we do to get goals is so, so huge. I can’t say we don’t play without full effort, discipline and ambition. We do and especially in first halves and big periods of second halves. We get punished for not doing a lot wrong. It’s a bit awkward and strange to analyse.”
