Hudson-Odoi ‘attitude’ blamed for humiliation
THOMAS TUCHEL has risked alienating Callum Hudson-Odoi by hauling him off only half an hour after bringing him on in Chelsea’s game at Southampton and then telling him to improve his ‘attitude’ and ‘energy’.
The 20-year-old winger, who has previously shone under the new manager, looked stunned after being subbed off in the 76th minute of the 1-1 draw.
‘It was not injury-related; I was not happy with his attitude,
energy and counter-pressing,’ said Tuchel afterwards. ‘In a game where it’s hard to create chances, you need to rely on counterpressing to force maybe errors, to get a second ball and get an easy chance. For that we have to be totally on and totally showing for counter-pressing. And I did not feel this from Callum today. He missed some opportunities for counter-pressing, he missed some easy balls. I had the feeling he was never really into the game.’
Former Stamford Bridge playmaker Joe Cole described the move as a ‘gamble’ on BT Sport, saying that ‘notoriously the Chelsea dressing room can be fragmented’.
But Tuchel, whose unbeaten run stretched to seven games yesterday, said: ‘Everybody needs to understand that sometimes I take the decisions to win games. It’s not a problem that he makes mistakes or has a bad game or does a miss. We cannot lack energy, 10 per cent or five per cent, it is not possible.
‘I know what he can give and that is why I trust him and that will not change. He knows exactly what I expect from him and maybe when he does not reach that level there is a hard decision like this. But there is no need to think in old-fashioned terms that this is the worst thing that can ever happen. No, it happened today and by tomorrow it is over and maybe he starts again against Atletico Madrid [Champions League on Tuesday] if we need his qualities. But then he needs to be trustful and he needs to be reliable. This is the next step for him. He was in trouble when he comes from the bench like this against Sheffield United, he was again today. So it is on him to improve because we need him for some games on the bench. He needs to learn from it, so no problem.’
Cole felt yesterday’s move was risky but could yet prove inspired. ‘I question whether it was necessary at the time to upset a player that’s maybe going to play for you Tuesday night,’ he said. ‘Maybe he’s a managerial genius, Callum starts on Tuesday and gives the performance of his life. But he’s a fantastic young player that will be fuming.
‘Tuchel’s took that decision and I do think it might be a message to his team. You live and die by your messages so how the dressing room reacts to it will be interesting. It’s bold, you don’t see managers doing it that early.’
Chelsea dominated the match but relied on a second-half Mason Mount penalty to get a draw after falling behind to a fine goal from Liverpool loanee Takumi Minamino.
‘For the first 80 metres [of the pitch] we were clearly good, for the last 20metres, no,’ said Tuchel. ‘We made lots of space for last passes but our decision making and determination was not good enough.’