TUCHEL URGES HIS ‘BAD GUYS’ TO BRING DOWN POPULAR LIVERPOOL

CHELSEA manager Thomas Tuchel has called on his players to bring down the nation’s favourite football team when they face Liverpool in today’s FA Cup final at Wembley. Tuchel revealed yesterday that he agrees with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who claimed last week that the country is full of Liverpool fans. ‘I can understand why Pep has that feeling,’ said Tuchel. ‘It is hard to really argue with it. There is a huge sympathy for Liverpool in the country. They work hard for it and no offence. ‘But it’s big credit to Jurgen Klopp. This is what you deal with when you play a team against him. ‘But if we are the bad guys tomorrow, then no problem. Forty nine or forty per cent (supporting us), then no problem. ‘We take that role. We don’t want to have the sympathy of the country tomorrow. We want to have the trophy.’ Tuchel was the coach who followed Klopp into Borussia Dortmund, so he knows plenty about the impact the man he calls ‘Kloppo’ can have on a club, a fanbase and even a whole country. ‘When he trained Dortmund, the whole of Germany loved Dortmund,’ said Tuchel. ‘So now he trains Liverpool and you have the feeling the whole country loves Liverpool.’

Tuchel and Klopp will meet at Wembley this evening for an FA Cup final that promises to deliver much. Their Chelsea and Liverpool teams have played three times this season and have been separated only once, by the 22nd of a remarkable set of penalties when Klopp’s team won the Carabao Cup in February. Chelsea began the season as Champions League holders and will end as world champions but it has been a disappointing campaign as their Premier League challenge slid away over time and, more recently, the sanctions on former owner Roman Abramovich were followed by the protracted sale of the club. Asked if victory today would compensate for a relatively underwhelming league campaign, Tuchel said: ‘I have to say it would make up for it big time. ‘Liverpool do allow chances and we proved it with big chances in

the Carabao Cup final. But it’s their approach. They are the team who put strikers of other teams into offside by far the most. It’s not easy to counter. ‘But you can find solutions if you have a perfect day. We are hoping for it tomorrow.’ So Chelsea know what they face. On the touchline, so does Tuchel. Asked if he sees Klopp’s face when he closes his eyes at night, he laughed and said: ‘When that happens, it’s time to stop working! ‘Kloppo is the master of being the underdog,’ he continued. ‘He can talk you into being the underdog against Villarreal and against Benfica, and it’s a miracle how they even draw against them. ‘He does it all the time. That’s also where the sympathy comes but there’s nothing to be jealous of from my side. Kloppo is a fantastic guy, a funny guy, one of the very best coaches in the world and this is what you deal with when you play against him.’