Thomas Tuchel has been pretty used to his weekly exclusive quotes on the Chelsea website being used to dissect yet another comfortable victory, but this week is very different.
Not only did his team lose, they lost in pretty humiliating fashion, embarrassed by their own errors, with perhaps a sneaking sense of cockiness creeping into their game.
Speaking about the individual mistakes – like Jorginho’s backpass to Edu Mendy and the keeper’s decision to try and play with it rather than clear it – Tuchel pointed out that stopping mistakes is not as simple as just deciding not to make them.
“Nobody wants to make mistakes but it won’t help if we just say “hey, don’t make mistakes anymore.” We have to go through it and we need to be better in decision-making in crucial moments of matches to be able to have clean sheets or concede a maximum of one,” read the manager’s quotes on the Chelsea official website.
He doesn’t strike as a vindictive type of manager, and while he can be furious on the touchline, we’re sure the mood will be very positive at Cobham regardless.
But he will be impressing on all those players the simple fact that they’ve got to clear their heads and start playing humble again. Their lead at the top of the table has evaporated to nothing, and they might never get it back again.
