‘Many, many errors’
THOMAS TUCHEL accepted the responsibility for Chelsea’s fivegoal thrashing at the hands of West Bromwich Albion — but he did not spare his players from criticism.
‘We were rusty, we were sloppy in the build-up in our own half, and we made many, many unforced errors,’ said Tuchel after seeing his team collapse following a red card for Thiago Silva in the first half-hour of the game at Stamford Bridge.
‘We didn’t adapt our positions under pressure,’ Tuch el added. ‘There were critical ball losses in our own half and that led in the end to a red card, and that cost us the game. ‘ When it was 11 against 11, I wasn’t super-happy but that was OK. I didn’t expect too much after the international break and the early kick- off. And I thought if it takes us a while I accept it. But we were still sloppy on counterattacks and missed a lot of opportunities to finish this game early.
‘And the second story was that we were not good enough when we were one man down. There is no need to concede five goals with our quality. But our defending was not on the quality it should be.
‘It is my responsibility. It’s hard to accept but t here i s no other solution than to accept it and to move forward.’ WEST BROM’S Callum Robinson was subjected to racial abuse online following yesterday’s game and the police have been informed.
It happened in the week Thierry Henry quit social media amid growing support for a Premier League-led boycott.