Is it time to start questioning Thomas Tuchel, yet?
As pandemonium erupted on Tuesday night at St. Mary’s in the middle of the potential onset of a club crisis for Chelsea, the Southampton fans cheered every pass, throw-in, tackle, and time-wasting antic from their side.
Why wouldn’t they? It wasn’t too long ago they finished the Premier League season with four out of five home defeats, some of them creating a dampening atmosphere. Who would’ve imagined – come the end of August a reshuffled pack shy of experience but high on emotion – would go on to outclass Chelsea to only claim their third win in 19 Premier League outings against them.
Goals from Romeo Lavia and Adam Armstrong completed the comeback after Raheem Sterling had given Chelsea the lead in the first-half.
Ralph Hasenhuttl and his young brigade deserved every punch in the air they produced after the full-time whistle, for it was their togetherness that emitted an incandescent spirit enough to enlighten the whole of Hampshire.
In the other dugout sat Thomas Tuchel, unable to decide where he could channel the restlessness gushing through his veins. The German stood a sorrowful figure when he waved his hands in the air, urging Edouard Mendy to attack a corner on a day that encompassed substandard set-piece execution. That was Chelsea’s last throw of the dice, and as you could imagine, it was the final bit of fruitless action before the full-time whistle.
It didn’t take long for matters to intensify at Stamford Bridge. For a club that prides itself on fostering a winning culture, Chelsea appears to have more questions than answers in the early going of the Premier League campaign.
Often, it resulted in the axing of managers, staff, changes in the personnel among other disruptions.
The aftermath of many such administrative decisions fell to the hands of Tuchel. Inheriting a squad unsure of where its heights were, comprising players with skill sets suited to different formations laid out by his predecessors, not being given a long-term contract to begin with, seemed like a herculean task.
When you start winning at Chelsea or any other club, all these issues turn into mere sediments in the redemption act. Tuchel did just that, shoring up the shoddy defence, getting his players to run the hard yards and winning the Champions League when the Blues weren’t even in contention.
He would carry on the winning legacy with the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup, alongside several cup finals.
Just when things appeared to be headed in the right direction at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel was left befuddled by sanctions on former owner Roman Abramovich. He had already won a one-man struggle, soon he had to rise again to fight another.
He protected the club like it belonged to him, and his players like a father figure and to be fair, deservedly received full backing from the new owners this transfer window.
It’s always been a case of questioning reckless management or player mentality at Chelsea. Despite all these hardships, the start to this season feels like the nadir of the famous West London side. Perhaps because it might be time to point a finger towards the club’s guardian angel.
The likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have taken years to build their respective empires. But what baffles most is that Tuchel has got players oozing quality in the form of Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly, who are certain to improve the squad. There’s a serious margin of demand for considerable improvements.
Kai Havertz is now well and truly settled at Chelsea. It’s been a couple of full seasons, he knows the pace of the division and what it asks of him. With Mason Mount, the standards continue to rise because he is one of Cobham’s most authentic, true, and prodigious talents.
With neither of them able to lay a contribution in front of goal despite having started all games, the pendulum swings towards Tuchel. Is he doing the best to bring the best out of them amid an experimental run of different formations, of repeated changes in structure, of setbacks from red cards on the pitch, or are they to blame despite having given a run of games?
There’s an old cliché that goes, “When it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” Chelsea, on the contrary, are crumbling. Of the little left in their tanks, the players coughed up the courage to lift their heads up and acknowledge the fans who had taken the trip down south from West London. When it finally could be time to test the bench strength and give chances to those who deserve it, Tuchel might have missed the trick.
Surprise packages and X-factors are the need of the hour for a club that, admittedly, is easy to beat these days. Instead, he has become anything but what he resembles as a tactician – flexible.
Raheem Sterling was roped in from Manchester City to lay down a marker for the Chelsea attackers. Instead, he’s the one having to bear the entire load of the club’s goalscoring duties.
It’s no secret Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic wanted away from Stamford Bridge this window. The World Cup is in sight for many players, but in a season bound to be laden with injuries and daunting footballing calendars, it’s puzzling how just three to four Chelsea forwards wish to stay put and fight for their place.
Yet, the two of them bagged a chance to play. Ziyech pinged a handful of delightful passes and was an intermittent threat on an evening bestrode by relentless energy from the Saints players. As for Pulisic’s cameo, the little we get to the kernel of that 25-minute spell, the better.
It doesn’t take too long to invite pressure at Chelsea either. While he must be noting the differences in the various formations he has tried, Tuchel knows there are more questions than answers glooming.
He must find the winning formula, or sense a way to stiffen up the back line that has already shipped eight goals in five matches, especially while deploying a more appealing back four.
In a market where they’ve drafted in players for the future, Chelsea may have forgotten to address the present after voids left by Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku, whilst also knowing a few of their forward players are linked with moves away from the Bridge.
Tough calls create champions. Tuchel himself stressed the importance of applying these decisions into matches ahead of the 2-1 defeat in his press conference. It’s hard to tell if he put those words into actions against Hasenhuttl’s team.
The ruffling fact behind the defeats against Leeds United and Southampton has been the inability to control games, when leading or trailing. The scarcity of significant counter-pressure has meant teams are well-equipped with maintaining their shape and overcrowding dangerous areas, forcing Chelsea to play sideways.
From the atmosphere to the change in tactics, the criticality of September couldn’t be any more tense.
As brilliant as he is, odds are he turns this around. The board, players, everyone at the club and majority of the fans trust him for the long-term. A much needed 2-1 win over West Ham on the weekend has temporarily stemmed the tide, but there’s still many leaks that need to be patched if Chelsea hopes to make a run at the title this season.
But Thomas Tuchel may have to fight yet another battle in his brief Chelsea career. And quite shockingly, this feels more onerous than the others.
-Roy Akarshak
Twitter: @RoyAkarshak
Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.