In 2021, Thomas Tuchel will win the Champions League with Chelsea. A good twelve months later, the Blues in the Premier League threaten to lose touch early on. Against Southampton they are already conceding their second bankruptcy in five games. After that, Tuchel sings a lament.
Thomas Tuchel didn't want to give up. He still had over 20 minutes to avert bankruptcy on the coast. On the sidelines he strung his hopes on a thread. First he brought in former Dortmund player Christian Pulisic and then young Albanian Armando Broja. They now played alongside Raheem Sterling, Hakim Ziyech, Mason Mount. Kai Havertz and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were already in the shower. But time was running out. Defeat was inevitable. Southampton 2 Chelsea 1
After the 0:3 at Leeds it was already the second away defeat in a row. The winner of the 2021 Champions League only collected seven points in the first five games. All of this gives the German coach a headache. The blues are too unstable in the first few months under the new consortium of owners led by Todd Boehly, who followed the defeat in Southampton on site and could draw his own conclusions. The late sale of the club after the sanctions against the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and the resulting inability to act on the transfer market had already been mentioned by Tuchel towards the end of last season as a possible reason for a bad start to the 2022/2023 season.
The argument: Chelsea's squad lacks depth, especially in attack. The solution? As usual in England: money. But even that is not so easy. After the departures of Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku, the Blues are still looking for a real striker. England international Raheem Sterling is set to come over the wing. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Everton youngster Anthony Gordon and Ivorian Wilfried Zaha remain contenders for a move in the closing hours of 2022. Of course, Cristiano Ronaldo's name also hangs like a threatening cloud over Stamford Bridge. The Portuguese is still desperately looking for a new club. But that's not yet Tuchel's topic, who, after his ban has expired, is now at odds with the current team.
"I don't know if concern is the right word. I hate to lose, it's the second time this season and I don't think it takes much to beat us and I don't like that," said Tuchel afterwards went bankrupt and criticized his team: "It's too easy to throw us off balance. That happened against Leeds. We have to understand the reasons for this and find solutions."
The evening in Southampton started with a goal for Chelsea. After 23 minutes, Sterling put the Blues, who had started the season as underdogs in the title race, ahead. A wonderful goal from 18-year-old Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong's first goal in a long time turned the game around before the break. Tuchel's substitutions didn't turn things around.
Chelsea had to play without a number of key players. Reece James was out with illness, the incomparable N'Golo Kante was injured and 22-year-old Conor Gallagher was suspended. The gaps in the Blues' defence, especially when they conceded the second goal, annoyed Tuchel, as did the lack of consistency in the end. After all, there was balance there.
"You can always lose games, and I'm humble enough to admit that. But in a game where you're in the lead, you can't miss half chances. It was disappointing that we didn't have any answers in the second half," said Tuchel . "Nevertheless, it doesn't necessarily mean that you lose games, you can also win 1-0."
Chelsea had poured over €100m into defenders Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly this summer, but the free transfers of Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen weigh heavily. Tuchel has not yet been able to find his ideal defense. Before the end of the transfer, the Londoners want to spend around 90 million euros for the 21-year-old Wesley Fofana from the current table bottom Leicester City. The French would be the most expensive defender in the world.
New pressure for Thomas Tuchel, who has already dropped eight points in five games. Since the 2017/2018 season, the champions of the English Premier League have only lost an average of 18.8 points at the end of the season. At least in the fight for the title, Tuchel will have to give up sooner or later. Whether he can line up Christian Pulisic on the sidelines at this point remains a mystery. The US national team captain is said to be unhappy with his situation at Stamford Bridge.
(This article was first published on Wednesday, August 31, 2022.)
