Thomas Tuchel is on the rise with Chelsea and has brought back the hope that was almost lost before his arrival to the Premier League side. The German tactician replaced coach Frank Lampard as the manager of the London club on January 26, 2021.
About 24 hours after his appointment as the coach of Chelsea, he had his first assignment of overseeing a Premier League match involving the club and Wolves on January 27. Like a laboratory researcher, Thomas Tuchel used the game to weigh up the players he could work with.
In the process of his trial, the German tactician dropped some regulars like Mason Mount from the first team and attempted to tweak things a little different from how Frank Lampard operated. At the end of the match, the experiment did not fully pay-off. Chelsea ended up drawing 0-0 with Wolves.
About four days later, Chelsea hosted Burnley at Stamford Bridge and Thomas Tuchel had another chance to try something new with the players. Instead of following the regular 4-3-3 formation Frank Lampard like using when he was at the club, Tuchel settled for a 3-4-2-1 formation which gave more support to the defense and also more support to the attack.
The experiment paid off perfectly for Chelsea against Burnley as the club that was struggling in their last 8 Premier League games before the arrival of Tuchel, ended up beating Burnley 2-0 on January 31.
When critics of the club thought the two successive clean sheets were nothing to go by, Tuchel faced his biggest task so far by leading Chelsea to the Tottenham Stadium to play Jose Mourinho’s team.
At the end of the keenly contested Premier League match, Tuchel’s Chelsea proved to be better than Mourinho’s Tottenham and a spot-kick taken by Chelsea’s Jorginho in the 24th minute of the first half was enough to earn Tuchel his three points in his first away Premier League game.
The match-winner! 🤩#TOTCHE pic.twitter.com/pTAShMG3H8
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 5, 2021
Besides the victory over Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur, in just three games, Thomas Tuchel has been able to inspire Chelsea to move from the 10th spot on the league table to the 6th spot, three points away from 8th placed Tottenham, and 4 points away from 4th placed Liverpool.
“In general I am very pleased with the result, it is a deserved win,’ Thomas Tuchel said after Chelsea’s victory over Tottenham on Thursday.
“We were very good in the first half, very dominant and strong with the ball, good counter-pressing and we did not allow counter-attacks against one of the most dangerous sides.
“We lacked a little bit of precision in the box and composure to make it 2-0 and to score more goals and decide the match, so the second half was a bit hard. We had some easy ball loses, and we lost a little bit of ball possession and confidence, but we never lost the structure to defend, we never lost the intensity to push up high, and the courage to defend up high and upfront, so I am very pleased.
“It is normal if you play a dominant game like this and you don’t score the second goal, some minutes may arrive when you have to suffer, but we were absolutely ready for that both mentally and physically, and I am super happy with the effort. We defended excellently.
“We need to create more clear chances, this is the objective and the job from me. One of the hardest things in football is to score and keep calm, but we have trust in our players and we will work to create more clear chances, and to be more effective, but in general, everyone wants to score with every half-chance but it is not like this in the Premier League.”
Thomas Tuchel might be without Thiago Silva against Sheffield United
The manager of Chelsea Thomas Tuchel might be without his trusted defender Thiago Silva in the Premier League match against Sheffield United scheduled to take place on February 7, at 20:15.
The center-back had to be substituted toward the end of the first half due to a muscle problem he developed in the match between Chelsea and Tottenham on Thursday, February 4.
Tuchel said the injury might not keep Silva out of football for too long but there is a possibility that he might miss the Chelsea league match against Sheffield United on Sunday.
“It will be very tight for Sunday’s game, only two days recovery,’ Tuchel said about the likelihood the player will be out”, Tuchel said.
“It is too early to give a diagnosis because I saw him very briefly with a big strap around his muscle. We will have to wait until tomorrow so we can confirm it but I think for Sunday he is a big doubt.”
