fbpx
Connect with us

Chelsea

Thomas Tuchel comes out with a bizarre excuse and refuses to give Leeds credit

Thomas Tuchel comes out with a bizarre excuse and also refuses to give Leeds credit while speaking with the media on Sunday.

The German oddly blamed a cancelled flight for Chelsea’s humiliating 3-0 defeat at Elland Road,, seeing the Blues fall behind after 33 minutes when goalkeeper Edouard Mendy gifted the ball to Brenden Aaronson to score. 

Rodrigo doubled Leeds’ lead four minutes later by heading in a free-kick from Jack Harrison, who scored himself in the second half before Kalidou Koulibaly was sent off with six minutes to go.

A tetchy Tuchel claimed his side were the better team before Mendy’s mistake and used the coaching staff’s disrupted travel plans on Saturday as an excuse.

‘Everything that can go wrong, did go wrong,’ said the Chelsea boss. ‘It started yesterday. We had no plane arrive so we came on the bus. The players could fly but for the coaching staff it was a long ride on the bus.

‘It continued today. We lost the game in the first 20 minutes, where we were clearly better and had huge chances. We missed the target and did not take what we deserved. We created enough chances to be 2-0 up.

‘We were clearly the better team and then we gave two presents. We lost our discipline. We scored an own goal (Mendy’s mistake) and gave away a cheap set-piece and conceded from a set-piece. They are mistakes.

‘It is nothing to do with pressing, nothing to do with running less kilometres and nothing to do with the style of Leeds. I don’t see the connection that we lost to the style of Leeds.

‘For you, this is the story, for me it is not. It is more our fault than anybody else’s credit.’

“I think we lost it in the first 20 minutes,” said Tuchel. “We had enough chances to be one or two goals up but then we lost the discipline. We gave two goals away, totally cheap and unnecessary. After that, the game was almost done because you lift the spirit, the belief.

“Everyone sees the mistake, it is a huge mistake in a crucial time of the match. He is the one who is most disappointed but it has cost us a lot. The body language, even in the 10 minutes before, it was not like it was in the last match, that is how I felt it.

“It was nothing to do with pressing, nothing to do with the style of Leeds. We should not confuse these two things. We gave an own goal away and a set-piece, that has nothing to do with anything.”

Responding to Tuchel’s claim that Leeds’ style of play did not contribute to the result, Leeds boss Jesse Marsch said: ‘He can have his opinion but our way of playing dictated the match almost entirely. It made them make mistakes.’

Mendy’s howler came after he tried to control Thiago Silva’s backpass, only to fail when attempting to take the ball around the pressing Aaronson, who tackled him a yard from goal.

‘I don’t know if it is necessary to speak a lot, he knows it is a mistake,’ said Tuchel.

‘Everybody in the world sees that mistake and it is a huge mistake in a crucial time of the match. It does not help. He is the one who is most disappointed. It cost us a lot today.’

Tuchel also aimed criticism at centre back Koulibaly, who was shown a second yellow card for pulling back Joe Gelhardt.

Player ratings

Leeds: Meslier (7), Llorente (7), Koch (8), Struijk (7), Kristensen (6), Rodrigo (9), Adams (9), Harrison (9), Roca (7), Aaronson (9), James (7)

Subs: Forshaw (6), Greenwood (n/a), Klich (n/a), Gelhardt (n/a)

Chelsea: Mendy (3), James (6), Silva (6), Koulibaly (2), Loftus-Cheek (4), Jorginho (6), Gallagher (5), Cucurella (6), Mount (6), Havertz (6), Sterling (6)

Subs: Pulisic (6), Ziyech (6), Chilwell (6)

Man of the match: Jack Harrison

Fans gave their thoughts as Thomas Tuchel comes out with a bizarre excuse and refuses to give Leeds credit…

@LewyDeWolf: This is such a Klopp excuse hahahaha

@daveyvermaak: Oh No!!!! 5Hrs on a luxury coach I suppose. Not even doing any driving. Egits. That’s a very very flimsy excuse at best.

@NicolaPartridg2: That London to Leeds stretch on a fancy coach is a killer. Makes all the game prep you’ve worked on all week just disappear. No idea how the travel situation translates into a needless back pass and a Mendy shit show but clearly it did.

@KennyRiggleman: O no they had to ride the bus the horror

@ChelseaTBC: Sorry, I just don’t care 🤷‍♂️ doesn’t explain the players’ abysmal performance or Tuchel’s questionable decisions

@CFC_JJ_: He’ll blame the janitor next

@CheetsS18: Whatever your football allegiances your heart has to go out to Chelsea here. Surely they should replay the game? Is there a just giving page?

@Squishy0009: Really getting sick of the complaining. With the squad we have we should be playing top football. The system is diabolical too and definitely doesn’t help when players all over the park are played in strange positions.

@matthipkiss92: Why is any team flying for a domestic game when there’s a climate emergency

@NottsCounty1991: Oh no poor staff travelling by coach from London to Yorkshire! Really feel for them

@mjclaridge; Tuchel’s comments epitomise what’s wrong with football. Implying flying is ‘normal’ reveals how distanced the game is from reality. It’s 200 miles by road. Three-and-a-half hours. Part time teams do it all the time. And Premier League players don’t have any other jobs to go to!

@DjnPerry: With the climate crisis pretty abhorrent that Chelsea fly from London to Leeds anyway. Can probably train there in a what a couple of hours?

@TheGreenTurf2: Tuchel running out excuses let be honest. Never questioned himself, it’s all about somebody else or something against us. Heat, cold, bouncy pitch, referees…Never about the structure or game management. Smart! #CFC #Chelsea #Leeds

@LauraHendry4: I’m a Chelsea fan & i think full credit to Leeds. They played really well & Chelsea were poor. It’s nothing to do with the coaching staff getting the bus 🤷‍♀️

@tonybello2k: What is that got to do with being trashed 3-0 by Leeds!!! You got it all wrong and you will be a bigger man if you admit it on TV !!!

@NiceGuyKenny: There you go. We lost because the physio had to spend 3-4 hours on a luxurious coach instead of an hour on a plane.

@DanielHarris: Ahahahaha, the coaches were tired.

@skybluetom87: How could the players fly but not the staff? And surely it makes no difference to the coaching staff anyway? He won’t be long in that job, he ain’t looked happy for ages.

@DanLittle180: So the coaching staff had to go on a bus and not a plane and it added to them losing today? 🤣

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Chelsea