Tuchel bids to crank up Chelsea’s intensity

THOMAS TUCHEL has held mini tournaments and competitive games in training to try to revitalise his out-of-form Chelsea players. The Blues have not guaranteed third place and have just one win in four games after a 1-0 loss at Everton last weekend. Tuchel admitted his side have lost their edge since being eliminated from the Champions League and wants to see a more competitive display against Wolves this afternoon. ‘Sometimes it does drive you crazy as a manager,’ he said. ‘I can tell you it always starts with me. I ask myself, did I lose my five per cent, two per cent? ‘Where could I have done more, where was my influence? You analyse the data and see also on a physical level we drop intensity, we drop kilometres, we drop, actually, effort. ‘Should I have been aware of it before? Should I have changed more positions, fresher legs? Where did it come from? You will never be fully sure. You cannot get stuck in the past. ‘You need to come up with solutions. So the solution is, in my experience, on the training pitch. We had three consecutive training sessions. That gave us the chance to increase the intensity. ‘We played little tournaments to win. We wanted to see who wins. They were smallsided games and we played for the result. It was very good training.’ Chelsea also face Leeds on Wednesday before their FA Cup final with Liverpool. When asked if his players are playing for their places at Wembley, Tuchel said: ‘Yes, but it is always like this. ‘We should not confuse it that we play for Wembley. We play tomorrow for tomorrow. This is the mentality.’