Thomas Tuchel was back again for his usual 1:30Pm UK Friday press conference ahead of a weekend match, this time Chelsea will face off against Wolves on Saturday. Bruno Lage, Wolves’s manager will NOT be in attendance after suffering from COVID – 19.
Tuchel addresses Pulisic’s situation and reacts to Mark Pulisic’s deleted tweet :
Mark Pulisic wrote after Chelsea’s defeat against Everton in which Pulisic was subbed on :
“ The sad thing is he loves the club, teammates, and London… puts his heart and soul into being a pro. Onwards and upwards my boy… big six months ahead..”
In response, Tuchel said that he is not concerned if a parent’s father does not love him on Twitter.
Furthermore, Tuchel went onto say :
“ As ever, we have our reasons to choose our line up and at this level you will never see happy faces when not selected. Between me & Christian, we have zero problems “
Clearly this situation is blown out of context and the tweet wasn’t needed by Mark, in my opinion. It will be interesting to see if Christian starts tomorrow as Timo Werner has played a lot of games over the last few weeks.
Tuchel updates on the injury situation :
Callum Hudson Odoi, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante are all OUT for tomorrow’s match, Tuchel confirmed. It seems likely that we see a Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus Cheek pivot if Chelsea continue in a 3-4-3 formation, or perhaps Mason Mount drops into a midfield 3 and Chelsea try and break down Wolves by playing a 4 at the back formation which has been floated in and out at times this season.
Indirect shots at current structure in place and a message to the new owners?
On the summer, Tuchel was questioned about what he would like to do and what he thinks could happen, he said that he knows there’s a preferred bidder in place and that things were moving along finally.
“ The top two teams bring quality from outside. You need to be very good in scouting, recruiting and decision making to improve the squad “
We have ideas, clear ideas, how to improve and freshen up our squad but it would not be the first window where you have a wish that you cannot have as a coach, we need to see what’s possible “
Sources haven’t really stated much about Tuchel’s unhappiness behind closed doors yet, but it’s clear from these quotes from my personal interpretation that he wanted more done last summer, namely a CB and a right sided option amongst potentially a midfielder ( Saul only came on loan ) to fully challenge this season.
The first quote is also interesting, on the face of things, Chelsea’s scouts background is hardly something that’s eye catching, and perhaps head scout Scott Mchlachlan’s recommendation of Saul Niguez just goes to prove how much things need to change within the powerful positions.
