Thomas Tuchel determined to get ‘big talent’ Hudson-Odoi ‘leave his footprint’ at Chelsea

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has rarely used Callum Hudson-Odoi since he arrived at the club in January, albeit early on as a right wing back.

However, Tuchel has admitted that this was not his best position, and that his lack of game time since could be due to him being a victim of a formation change.

I exclusively revealed yesterday on my own website Si Phillips Talks Chelsea, that Tuchel rates Hudson-Odoi highly and wants to turn him into a world beater.

He has since confirmed this in his press conference that has been released over night.

Tuchel basically says that they rate Hudson-Odoi, and they are eager to see him reach his full potential here which they have belief in. But they are now pushing him to now fully show that potential on the pitch.

They are also now in agreement that his best position is in one of the attacking roles, rather than a wing back, and Hudson-Odoi proved that against Manchester City at the weekend.

As reported by Goal, Tuchel said:

“We were very happy with Callum since we arrived here and in the last weeks there were a few tough decisions against him because we played many times against a back five.

“Against a back five, we relied a bit more on really learned defensive guys like Azpi [Cesar Azpilicueta] and Reece [James], who are a bit stronger in defence. On the inside position where he played against Man City, this is maybe his best position, we agree on that and the big change and the big impact he had now when we brought him on was that it was not only one action that he had, but it was two or three accelerations.

“Callum needs to understand how to use his potential, he needs to understand how to push himself to the absolute limit and not to be happy with 80, 85, 90, 95 per cent, simply be not happy about it any single day.

“This is the thing he needs to learn and live up to. Once he does this, he will make his way and leave his footprint. It’s about his position. It’s about assisting, it’s about scoring, it is about that, we don’t need to talk around it.

“It’s about putting things to an end. Big talent, big responsibility. This is what he’s trying, sometimes, sometimes better, sometimes OK, sometimes very, very good and when we have a chance we let him play.

“Please don’t forget we only have three changes here in England which is a big advantage for the guys like Callum, like Tammy, like others we’ve spoken about in the last few weeks. We cannot give them 20 minutes here and there which could make a huge, huge difference for their feeling and development.

“But it’s not like this, but if you have only three then you more or less only have two because the last one is a bit of a risk for injuries and finishing the game with 10 people.”

Chelsea News