Chelsea defender Malang Sarr has revealed that the return to pre-season has seen Thomas Tuchel’s side training harder this summer.
Heading into his second season with the first team, Sarr has opened up on the early start to pre-season.
The 23-year-old played an important role as a back-up defender to Antonio Rudiger last season and could once again remain at Stamford Bridge for the 2022/23 season.
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He returned along with his Chelsea teammates who were not involved with their national sides post-season earlier this summer.
The players came back last weekend and now prepare to travel to the United States of America on Saturday to undergo a two-week pre-season camp, where they will face Club America, Charlotte FC and Arsenal.
Speaking on the upcoming camp, Sarr told Chelsea’s official website: “I never went on big pre-season trips before, this is going to be the first one for me.
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“Usually, when I was in my former clubs, we never really went far from our base so now I look forward to it because it's my first time going away for a pre-season and first time in America too.
“It will be nice to see the country, especially being with the club on a tour like this, bringing US energy to it and seeing how it is.
"I really look forward to playing the games with the team and to prepare for the season and work really hard.
“We know they love sports in America so they know how to do the facilities and to welcome people to work, and I know they like excellence, they always want to perform and I love performance. It's really good to be able to travel there and everything is set up for us to be able to prepare the season and perform.”
Signing for Chelsea from OGC Nice on a free transfer, Sarr didn’t experience pre-season in his first year as a Blue as he was sent on loan to FC Porto.
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The Frenchman continued to reveal how Chelsea boss Tuchel has had his side training ‘hard’ ahead of the new season.
“We started to train Saturday morning, a session in the morning and a bit of work in the gym before we trained again on Sunday,” he continued. “We had cardiac and blood tests.
“The manager came back on Monday and we started to train a bit harder in the morning.
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"We do the physical work and fitness work but we still do ball play, position games and technical work which is really good for us. Little games with small goals, just to bring the intensity with the ball into it.”
With Rudiger and Andreas Christensen departing, Sarr will be hoping to impress Tuchel as he bids to earn his place in the Blues’ starting line-up ahead of the new season.
The likes of Matthijs de Ligt and Nathan Ake have been linked with moves to Stamford Bridge this summer, with Levi Colwill and Ethan Ampadu also returning for pre-season training to provide defensive competition.
Topics: Chelsea, Malang Sarr, Thomas Tuchel, Football, Premier League
Nick Emms