There are always going to be many factors coming in to play when you lose a football match, and debates will start all over the place.
Whether it is on the players, or whether it was decisions from the manager on tactics or on player selection, or usually what is the case is that it is a little bit of everything.
You cannot win every game of football you play, but Chelsea’s loss to Manchester City yesterday was down to a number of things.
The players were just not as up for it as City’s players were, and Pep Guardiola’s team just wanted it more, and were physically better than Chelsea.
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As well as that, Tuchel admits he had a few players starting the game who were either unwell, or had small injury niggles, so he questions whether he should have started them.
He also questions the shape he set Chelsea up in, which was different to the last three times he played and beat City with Chelsea last season.
As reported by The Metro, Tuchel said:
“I think we lacked a little bit of freshness today.
“Kante has been ill for some days and I decided to let him start.
“Jorginho has had some problems and Thiago [Silva] could not start, so maybe today it is on me for not making the best choices in that sense.
“We decided on 3-5-2 but I don’t think it’s a matter of structure against City, it’s about decisions and adapting to the opponent’s spaces.
“We win together and we lose together but I will ask the questions of myself of whether it was the right shape but I’m not sure the shape was decisive in the result.
“We lost the game and City deserved to win.
“For 60 minutes, until the goal, we were very strong in the last [defensive] 20 metres of the field but only there, unfortunately. The other 80 metres, we were not good enough.
“We were never on our highest level. You cannot expect to get a result. It could turn around maybe with one header but we have to accept it was not our best game.
“We did not have ball possession to hurt them, to grow in confidence. It never happened in the first half or the second half. Until the goal, we defended the box very well but the performance was not complex enough.
“We were not on our very best level and you need the best level to push the game against this side.”
