TAKE A LUK Blues striker a perfect
THOMAS TUCHEL has challenged Timo Werner to keep producing the scoring form he showed against Southampton and Real Madrid. The 49-cap Germany international hasn’t had an easy time since joining Chelsea two summers ago and has found goals much harder to come by here than he ever did in his homeland.
But Tuchel likes what he has seen fromwerner in his last two outings and the three goals he has scored in those games, allied to top all-round performances, mean he is likely to start today’s FA Cup semifinal against Crystal Palace. Tuchel said:
“Now he has made it difficult to leave him out. I’m impressed – he was very, very good in the last two games.
“He showed what he is capable of. Everybody thinks we as managers do the line-up, and of course we do.
“But in the end, the players take care that you don’t leave them out, they do it in training or in games.
“Especially for strikers, things can be turned around in minutes, in moments.
“Whole careers can be upside down and in any direction but always as a striker you can have a chance to put things into your favour.
“He did in the last two games and that’s what we want from him. It’s what he needs to show and then he takes care that he plays.”
Werner isn’t the only Chelsea frontman who has struggled, with the same going for Romelu
Lukaku. Tuchel added:
“What Timo has done is exactly what he needs to do – wait, be patient, work hard and put the team first, be ready to help the team, because as a striker you can help within seconds.”
The past few days have been bittersweet for Tuchel, whose team gave a sensational performance in Madrid on Tuesday but also went out of the Champions League.
So, after that, he is happy today’s clash with Palace is a one-off because it should help Chelsea to get the Real game out of their system and also because it is atwembley – they have recently suffered bad results against Brentford and Real at Stamford Bridge.
He said: “Maybe teams play at Stamford Bridge first of all not to lose, with a slightly more defensive approach, and we struggle a bit to break them down.
“It seems likewembley is a bigger pitch than Stamford
Bridge and I had the feeling in Madrid that the pitch is bigger.”
So would Tuchel want to extend the pitch should Chelsea’s new owner redevelop the stadium?
He added: “If we think this is a reason, maybe we would go into the discussion.
“But the pitch size should not hold us back from performing better.”