The manager of Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel is not happy with the Premier League’s tight schedule in December even though his team has been having a fair run in the league.
The German tactician stressed that he would not have had an issue with the tight schedule if Chelsea are not currently bedeviled by injuries and coronavirus infections.
Chelsea have been without a series of the club’s first-team players including Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Ben Chilwell. Also, Jorginho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kai Havertz, and Andreas Christensen have been missing due to illness and coronavirus infections.
Though players like Lukaku and Jorginho are back to the team, coach Thomas Tuchel is still battling to get his full squad back and running. Amid that, the team has to play every two to three days.
For instance, Chelsea played on Sunday night, December 26 against Aston Villa. The game which ended 3-1 in favor of Chelsea saw Lukaku score his first goal in December and Jorginho scored twice via spot-kick.
On Wednesday, December 29, Chelsea will be in action again but this time around, it will be a Premier League game against Brighton which will kick off at 20:30. Three days later, the club will play against Liverpool on January 2, at 17:30.
Even though coach Thomas Tuchel does not have most of his players fit for the December schedule, the team has managed to win four of the 8 games the team played this month. The team drew three others and lost one.
After the 3-1 win over Aston Villa, coach Thomas Tuchel insisted that the Premier League board should not have allowed the month to be so filled with fixtures.
“It’s like it is – but this cannot be the right way,” the German tactician said.
“It’s not fair. We’ve all been in bed for 10 days and we play against teams who prepare with games postponed, and who prepare with one week for these matches.
“They make us play all the time, even if we have Covid. We have new injuries and it won’t stop. People at the green table, in offices, make these decisions.
“We are struggling, we’re pressing our players. I have maximum respect for what the players did. We do changes because of injuries. We don’t change for tactical reasons anymore…
“I’m very impressed with my players but super concerned. Maybe we made a big mistake letting players play after corona and one or two training sessions.
“But obviously they [the Premier League] made us play and so we play.”
Part One: Thomas Tuchel is not happy.
— Absolute Chelsea (@AbsoluteChelsea) December 26, 2021
“The whole of Europe has five changes, the whole of Europe has a winter break.”
[via @footballdaily]pic.twitter.com/uEOEoTKlio
