Frank Lampard has refused to be drawn on if Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be available to face Newcastle United on Thursday. The Blues manager revealed after the match that illness had kept the England international from being involved this weekend, and it’s not yet clear when he will be back for his side.
Thomas Tuchel said: “The idea is the same. But we have had probably the most games I’ve coached with players missing from day one: Ben Godfrey, from two Yerry Mina and Demarai Gray, Dominic has hardly played. Selections are decided upon by missing big players. In games we had to change when you play against a back three and they score against you in a tight game you have to get an extra attacking player on. We have to do what we feel is right and when you say we are in possession, we want possession for a reason, to move up the pitch. When you have a back five with three big centre-halves, to play from A to B is a difficult thing. The players have to stay brave in those circumstances. I understand the feelings of the fans, they want to see the ball up the other end of the pitch but sometimes you have to move the ball to open up spaces. That cannot change from us. Can we do it better? Sure. Sometimes you have to wait to accept a bit of pressure because my honest opinion is we were playing a lot more direct before I got here and I think we won one game in 14. We have to find the right balance but at the same time we can’t revert to something in between, we have to do one thing or the other. At the back end of the game I was trying to get us to be more direct because we were a man down and it made absolute sense at that point. But other than that we have to stick to how we want to play. You saw us play that way against Leeds here and Manchester City, the best team in the country, and we can play through lines and be a really effective team. We and the players have to stay brave on that one.”
Lampard is keen for his players to move on from this result quickly and start thinking about a tough match against Newcastle United at Goodison on Thursday.
Frank Lampard said: “Staying calm is not the thing. I think being on edge is not a bad thing. I am talking about the bigger picture because that’s the reality of it because as coaches we think about the next one. If things go in our favour on Thursday, it will look very different to today. When we are where we are at there is a longer road to try to get out of this. We can’t rely on one result to change it for us in a positive manner, just the same as we can’t take on one result today that we really wanted to win that didn’t go our way. The players need to think about Thursday, which starts this evening and carries on tomorrow morning.”
