Why Tuchel was right to break code when he replaced Hudson-odoi
Hhauling off the substitute was for head coach’s own good but can also help motivate his Chelsea squad
Thomas Tuchel caused a predictable stir when he substituted Callum Hudson-odoi during Chelsea’s underwhelming draw at Southampton. Substituting the sub is seen as taboo; a step too far by a callous manager; a humiliation of the player that upsets the dressing room.
Why is this so? Hudson-odoi had been on the pitch for 30 minutes after coming on as a half-time replacement and, in the head coach’s eyes, had not done enough, even if others felt he had helped turn the game in Chelsea’s favour.
But Tuchel did not try to hide it as he accused Hudsonodoi of lacking “energy” and “attitude”. He did not dodge the question; he did not sugar-coat the issue. In a game Chelsea were desperate to win it was not good enough.
Obviously there is a duty to manage the player – and Hudson-odoi may be an England international, but is still just 20 – and it was good that Tuchel later spoke to him and addressed the squad. That needed to be done because it will have hurt Hudson-odoi.
But this is not a rehearsal for Tuchel. When he arrived at the club he spoke about the need to achieve results immediately, of winning trophies and the futility of expecting a long contract. Tuchel made it clear he had 18 months and had to get on with it from day one. That is the reality. Fail and he will be gone long before that contract expires. There would be far less sentiment about getting rid of him than Frank Lampard, who was sacked just 52 days after guiding the club to the top of the Premier League. That is life at Chelsea.
A draw 24 hours after Tuchel arrived was followed by five wins. He – and Chelsea – would have expected Southampton to be the sixth victim en route to cementing a place in the top four, which he absolutely has to achieve this season. No negotiation. Champions League football is expected. It is what being at Chelsea means: for coach and players.
Subbing the sub always elicits the same outraged reaction from former players. It is regarded as breaking some kind of code, and as something from which a player will struggle to recover. But surely it is a manager’s prerogative? Of course on some occasions – such as when Everton caretaker Duncan Ferguson substituted Moise Kean – it is indicative of a greater problem, and the Italian attacker went out on loan to Paris St-germain, where he has thrived.
That is not the case with Hudson-odoi, who has already made five starts under Tuchel and been involved in all seven games and was made another example of by the German when he arrived: he was a surprise selection in his first line-up when he was man of the match in the unfamiliar role of wing-back.
So Hudson-odoi has hardly been picked on or mismanaged. He has felt plenty of love and been spoken of highly, with Tuchel namechecking Bayern Munich’s interest. Instead it appears a move to show what Tuchel expects from a player who has so much to offer.
Of course this is Chelsea, and power plays are fairly standard. So Tuchel has to lay down his marker for his own good, just as Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte did. The managers who have tended to prosper have been those willing to be disciplinarians at the right moment, while the perception that Carlo Ancelotti was too “lax” was the reason Roman Abramovich sacked him in 2011.
So far Tuchel has been extremely astute and appears – along with Guus Hiddink – to be the manager who has arrived with his eyes wide open. The one who is fully aware of what he has stepped into. Perhaps hardened by his experience at PSG Tuchel knows the score; he knows what to expect and what is expected – and who to keep happy ie Abramovich and Marina Granovskaia, who runs the club on the billionaire’s behalf.
Tuchel has brought back players, such as Marcos Alonso, who were out of the picture under Lampard. He has made Antonio Rudiger – who was also unwanted – central to his defence. He has talked about the need for Timo Werner and Kai Havertz to step up. He has even begun the rehabilitation of Kepa Arrizabalaga, the world’s most expensive goalkeeper, and he will have known the importance of all these issues to the Chelsea hierarchy. He did not ask for any signings because he knows enough money was spent.
“Player power” is a phrase often used around Chelsea, and it has certainly been a big factor in the past – there were those banners accusing some of being “rats” when Mourinho was sacked for the second time – and, although that does not appear to be the case with this current squad, Tuchel will have been aware of the discussion, which was also a talking point at PSG.
Up until last weekend Tuchel had won and his message was that a draw away to a Southampton side who had lost their past six Premier League games could not be deemed good enough. Momentum needs to be maintained and maybe part of his thinking was to deliver a shock to the system ahead of tonight’s Champions League last-16 tie against Atletico Madrid, which is a key fixture. A belief that Chelsea could not win it under Lampard was one of the reasons he was fired.
“Maybe I was harsh,” Tuchel said of his treatment of Hudson-odoi, and that was the carrot after the stick. Maybe he was harsh. But he will not regret substituting the player and it is strange that football, which can be such a brutal sport and not least when it comes to assessing managers, still regards such decisions as a step too far.
So far Tuchel has been extremely astute and appears to have arrived with his eyes wide open
It was 24 hours that felt like the prelude to football’s changing of the guard, and as Joao Felix watched Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland put down markers in last week’s first round of Champions League last-16 games, the Atletico Madrid superstar knew his turn was next.
Just as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have responded to one another’s brilliance for over a decade, Felix wants to use the performances of Mbappe and Haaland to help him show that world football’s next great Ballon d’or dynasty can be a three-way rivalry.
Mbappe stunned Barcelona with a hat-trick for Paris St-germain in the Nou Camp, before Haaland scored two goals against Sevilla for Borussia Dortmund the next night and now, a week on, Felix is relishing the opportunity to try to provide his own moment of magic against Chelsea tonight.
“Cristiano and Messi reached a level that no other player reached, so I hope I can reach it,” says Felix. “Mbappe and Haaland are in a good position to do it and if I reach that level too, then it will be very good for me.”
Aged just 21 and speaking in nearperfect English, Felix is relaxed and happy to discuss a range of subjects including his admiration of Chelsea’s Mason Mount, whose talent he had been tipped off about long before the midfielder’s Premier League debut.
Felix, in his first interview with English media from a studio at Atletico’s training ground, is also clear in his desire to use the example of his Portuguese idol and international team-mate Ronaldo, and his competitive relationship with Messi, as inspiration to push himself towards the top.
Asked if he, Mbappe and Haaland can bring out the best in one another by constantly laying down new challenges and raising the bar, Felix says: “Yeah, for sure. When you see players that are a similar age, we want to do the same, we want to show the people that we can do that too.”
Felix remembers being a starstruck nine-year-old watching Ronaldo score one of his many stunning Champions League goals, against Porto inside the Estadio do Dragao for Manchester United, and 12 years later he can easily seek guidance from the Portuguese legend, as they share a dressing-room for the national team.
“Now, when we are with the national team, Cristiano always tries to give me and all of the young guys advice about work, motivation, everything,” says Felix. “We listen carefully and we try to take his advice.”
Just as there are differences between Ronaldo and Messi, Felix is a different player to Mbappe and Haaland, as he combines an ability to score goals with creating them – as Liverpool found out in last season’s Champions League, when Felix set up Marcos Llorente to score in Atletico’s last-16 success.
“They [Mbappe and Haaland] are more strikers,” says Felix. “Mbappe is more like Cristiano, going from the wing to the middle and I think I’m a little back from them, like a second striker.
“I would love to play with them one day and I hope they would like to play with me too.”
His mop of brown hair and olive complexion is reminiscent of a youthful Kaka, and it is the Brazilian a young Felix used to watch videos of and try to emulate.
“He was my first reference in football. Not now, but before I used to watch some videos of him and sometimes I would try to copy his moves and try to play like him.”
Born in the Portuguese city of Viseu, Felix was a youth player at Porto for six years and rejects the often repeated claim that he was released for being too small.
“No, I was never released by Porto. I would say if I was. I just told them I wanted to leave and Benfica appeared.”
It was at Benfica that Felix got to know Chris Willock, who had moved to Portugal from Arsenal, and tipped his friend off about a talented young English player whom he reminded him of.
“I played with Chris Willock in Benfica three or four years ago and he told me that Chelsea has a guy that he sees who is similar to me and he told me it was Mason Mount,” says Felix.
“Then, a few years later, he appeared in Chelsea and sometimes I see him and I like the way he plays, I like the way he touches the ball. Chris had told me about him before he appeared in the Premier League.”
Felix played only one season of senior football at Benfica before being signed by Atletico for £113million in 2019, which made him the second-most expensive teenager in football, behind Mbappe, and the fourth of all-time.
Nicknamed Menino de Ouro (the Golden Boy) by Portuguese and Spanish media, Felix has grown accustomed to living with the burden of not only his transfer fee but also the constant expectation to deliver.
“Sometimes it’s difficult, which is normal, but I try to live with it the best way and I forget about the price tag that I cost.”
The son of two teachers, Felix has a 16-year-old younger brother Hugo, who is at Benfica.
Despite being linked with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, Felix insists he never knew of an opportunity to move to England before he joined Atletico, but he is a fan of the Premier League.
“I like to watch the Premier League,” he says. “David Silva, [Mesut] Ozil, [Eden] Hazard and [Sergio] Aguero are some of the players I have enjoyed watching.”
Now is not the time for Felix to answer questions over whether he would ever follow Aguero by moving to England from Atletico. He is too busy focusing on Chelsea and how best to reply to Mbappe and Haaland.