What Tuchel must overcome to get Chelsea back on track
⮞manager has urgent work to do as his stuttering side drops from top to third in table after going down 3-2 at West Ham
Injuries
Chelsea have a large squad with a combination of expensive signings and exciting home-grown talent, but it is being stretched by injuries. Mateo Kovacic has been out for six weeks, N’golo Kante has missed the past three games, Ben Chilwell is out until at least next month and Trevoh Chalobah was injured at Watford. On Saturday Kai Havertz and Marcos Alonso limped off, and Jorginho has been playing with a hip problem.
Thomas Tuchel’s first-choice strikers, Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku, have just returned from injury, and the manager admitted that the latter was still not ready for a full game. The Belgian’s anonymous performance after replacing Havertz at half-time would support Tuchel’s assertion, and he said: “It is my fault because he is not ready for 45 minutes physically but still we decided to bring him on because we lost Kai and Kai had a crucial role in defending set-pieces, which is a huge threat from West Ham.”
Goalkeeping
Edouard Mendy was the fall guy on Saturday, at fault for two goals. He conceded the penalty from which Manuel Lanzini scored West Ham’s first equaliser, then failed to stop a late mis-hit cross from Arthur Masuaku, which proved to be the winner. The once rock-solid keeper has looked shaky recently and Tuchel admitted his confidence may be low.
The German defended his keeper, though, saying: “I don’t see at all why we should have major doubts with Edou. Every single goalkeeper has tough days and tough moments and they are in the spotlight because it is an exposed situation and position. Every little mistake and every ball loss or decision-making when you struggle is so obvious. That environment starts pointing fingers. We don’t want this to happen because he is crucial for us.
“Maybe on his very best day today we could have won the game 2-1. But now it is on us to also be there for him.”
Mistakes
Although Mendy took most of the blame for West Ham’s opening goal, he was not helped by a poor backpass from Jorginho that put him under pressure from Jarrod Bowen. It was not the first time the Chelsea midfielder has caused problems for his team in recent weeks. He made a hash of controlling a high ball the previous weekend, allowing Jadon Sancho to equalise for Manchester United, and Chelsea also lost possession in midfield when Watford scored a leveller on Wednesday. When it was put to Tuchel that perhaps Chelsea were “overplaying” in their own half, he responded with a comment about mistakes creeping in though tiredness, also pointing out that Jorginho was carrying a hip injury. “We have crucial ball losses in situations where you simply cannot have them if you want clean sheets and want to dominate games,” he said. “If you want to protect against counterattacks, it is impossible to make these kinds of mistakes, three times in a row. It is simply too much.
“It is absolutely normal to be tired through the Premier League in winter, it is a question of precision, details, risk management, where you take it and where you absolutely don’t.” He added that all these problems could be solved. “It is about details and that is why I think we can sort it out straight away. It will not help if we just say ‘hey don’t make mistakes anymore’.
“We need to be better in decision-making in crucial moments to be able to have clean sheets.”