Thomas Tuchel’s mood after the 3-1 win at Aston Villa? Pure frustration. The Chelsea coach ranted about the risky handling of players – which he himself also provided.
Boxing Day gets its name not from fisticuffs but from gift boxes, but when Thomas Tuchel had just successfully completed his first as Premier League coach, he felt more like the former: he went for confrontation.
In unusually strong words after the 3-1 win at Aston Villa, the Chelsea coach railed in the direction of the people sitting in “some offices in armchairs and at the green table” who, for his taste, are steering football in England in the wrong direction right now. “We are worried,” Tuchel said on Sky Sports, “I am super worried. “
Tuchel sees player health at risk and cites examples
He must have known that things get particularly stressful around the turn of the year in the Premier League before he signed for Stamford Bridge at the end of January, but from Tuchel’s point of view a few too many things are coming together right now: Corona breakouts, injuries, constant must-win games and an iron clad adherence to three change options instead of five.
They were playing with the health of the players, and Tuchel certainly included himself in that. “We had to let Callum Hudson-Odoi play 90 minutes because we had to take other players off the pitch,” he reported in light of Thiago Silva and N’golo Kanté’s substitutions due to injury. “Mateo Kovacic is playing after an injury and COVID without preparation or training. “
Lukaku played longer than recommended: “Maybe we are making a big mistake “
And Romelu Lukaku, also out recently due to a Corona infection, had played longer “than recommended by the medical department”. “Yes, he put in a very good performance today. But that’s not fair,” Tuchel said of the matchwinner, who came on as a substitute at the break. “He is not ready for it. We’ve all been in bed for ten days because of flu, I didn’t play at Villa Park two days later. “
What that does to a recovered man, “we don’t know, nobody knows,” lamented Tuchel. “Maybe we are making a big mistake here.” And that Chelsea now face six competitive games between now and January 15 (including the League Cup semi-final, which was shortened to one game last year because of Corona but is now due to be back in a first and second leg), Tuchel feels is simply unfair. “We play against teams who have a week to prepare for these games. “
“We have new injuries and this will not stop – this cannot stop “
Recently, former league leaders Chelsea had already suffered serious setbacks in the title race. “They let us play even when we have COVID. And we play, but that can’t be the right way. Now we have new injuries and that will not stop. It can’t stop,” said Tuchel, who also made a strong case for the reintroduction of five change options.
“Five changes were introduced because of Corona, the whole of Europe has five changes, the whole of Europe has a winter break, but we are playing through. But on whose backs? On the backs of the players!” That the league had not reverted to five changes a year ago, however, had not been decided by outsiders in any offices – but by the Premier League clubs themselves.