BLUES MANAGER HAS
THOMAS TUCHEL is proving to be a proper pain in the backside for Pep Guardiola’s trophy aspirations.
First, he engineered the victory that thwarted Manchester City’s Quadruple hopes at Wembley last month when Chelsea knocked the Blue Moons out of the FA Cup semi-finals.
And last night he masterminded another impressive 2-1 win to delay for another six days at least City’s coronation as Premier League champions.
Guardiola’s men will, of course, go on to clinch the title at some point over the next couple of weeks to set up a potential Treble.
But, on May 29, Tuchel will be waiting for City again in the Champions League Final with the German hoping to reprise his role as Pep’s party-pooper-in-chief.
Who would bet against the German frustrating Guardiola again and denying City of their Holy Grail for at least another season, too?
And already, Guardiola must wish he had not shared quite so much of his wisdom when the pair talked tactics at what must have been a dizzying dinner for the salt and pepper pots while he was at Bayern Munich and Tuchel was in between jobs at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund.
What is certain is that if Tuchel does deliver Chelsea’s second Champions League trophy to deny City their first, then more people will buy into the idea that he and his team will be the biggest title rivals to the boys from the Etihad next season.
Former Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona and Holland star Bolo Zenden sees it that way and has been very impressed with the job Tuchel has done at Stamford Bridge since replacing Frank Lampard in January.
Zenden (above) said: “Tuchel is very demanding to both sides in his team – the attacking players
have to try to make the difference in matches and they have to do a big amount of defensive work.
“Those are the conditions he puts towards his players if they want to get a place in the starting line-up, so, under Tuchel, a player has to be very complete.
“Since he’s been in charge, Chelsea have conceded very few goals.
“That is a good thing.
But all the attacking is left to three players up front.
“They have to try to make the difference in all the games, which is a massive task as they are quite far away from the opposition goal all the time.
“When Chelsea have the ball, they operate in a 3-4-3 system. Really, it is a 3-4-2-1 system and in most matches Tuchel makes his team play with five defenders.
“He has gone for a very solid defensive block.”
Prior to this weekend, Chelsea had conceded just 10 goals in 24 games under Tuchel – and five of those were in that crazy defeat by West Brom.
And with such a platform, Zenden believes Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner will be a massive threat next season after a difficult first campaign in England.
He added: “Look at Frenkie de Jong at Barcelona – people in Spain expected more.
“He did not have a bad season last year, but this season he is the most important player next to Lionel Messi in the Barcelona team.
“I am asking for a bit of understanding.
“Just look at Ziyech, who joined from Ajax.
“He has not had problems adapting, although I hate to use that word.
“There are no such things as problems for him and the others.
“You have to call it an adaption period – and that is only normal.”