Thomas Tuchel insists Chelsea’s current problems have been caused by injuries and suspensions in the squad but has told his team to find solutions and show a different mentality to overcome the challenges.
Chelsea had a night to forget on Tuesday down on the south coast against Southampton. Despite taking the lead in the first half through Raheem Sterling, goals from Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong before the interval were enough to inflict back-to-back away defeats on Tuchel’s side in the Premier League.
Just five games into the 2022/23 season and Chelsea are already facing challenges. Reece James is ill, while Trevoh Chalobah, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic have suffered injuries, while Conor Gallagher and Kalidou Koulibaly have already missed matches through suspension.
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Their problems were added to on Tuesday when Ruben Loftus-Cheek was forced off at half-time with a hamstring problem.
"Hamstring injury, next midfielder out,” Tuchel told BT Sport.
"No one left. Recommendation for Kovacic was 20 minutes.
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“I also don’t understand why we are in this situation regarding injuries, all players in midfield. Need to find solutions."
After showing courage and fight against Tottenham Hotspur despite drawing 2-2 at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea were well-beaten by Leeds United and then bounced back with 10-men against Leicester City.
Tuchel reflected on the ‘bubble bursting’ of being happy with his side’s performance against Spurs and the Chelsea head coach addressed the matter of adding to the squad with less than 48 hours to go of the summer transfer window.
He said: “Do you know what it reminded me of? Juventus last season. We played a fantastic match at Stamford Bridge, and after that, we had Chilly off for eight months and Kante out for three months.
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"It was the same against Tottenham - we had a fantastic performance.
"After that, our key players say goodbye for six weeks in N'Golo.
"Then it's red cards, it's again a red card for Conor, Ruben goes off injured, Mateo Kovacic is injured for eight weeks since pre-season. This is what it reminds me of – Reece James is off for the game with illness too.
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"It's key player after key player. It's a fact, and with our demands and the ambition we have it's simply like that.
"But it's even more important if these key players are missing that we need to show a different mentality. It's not enough at the moment to win at Leeds and Southampton.
"There's no shame in it; we are humble enough to admit we can lose football matches, although we hate it.
"But it's too easy to push us off the track, too easy to win challenges, too easy to bully us."
Topics: Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea, Premier League, Southampton
Matthew Debono