Five moments that marked the beginning of the end for Tuchel
ALL OVER: Thomas Tuchel.
From a Champions League winner to the sack in 20 months is a pretty spectacular rise and fall even by Chelsea's standards.
Thomas Tuchel lasted exactly 100 games before he left Stamford Bridge in the same manner as he was appointed – fired with enthusiasm. We look at where it went wrong for the German:
December did for Frank Lampard in 2020, with just two wins and three defeats in a month taking Chelsea from top of the table to eighth and costing the Blues legend his job, allowing Tuchel to take over in January.
Fast forward a year, and December 2021 saw Tuchel's Chelsea also nosedive from top of the table to eight points behind Manchester City. Beating Juventus 4-0 in the Champions league while top of the Premier League in November had proved something of a high-water mark last season.
After a slightly fortuitous 2-1 win at Watford on December 1, Chelsea were one point ahead of Manchester City and two ahead of Liverpool. By the end of the month they were eight points behind City, and when they played Pep Guardiola's team, had won only two out of nine games in the Premier League.
By coincidence, Lampard's deadly run was also bookended by 4-0 win in the Champions League, at Sevilla, and defeat against City. Maybe a lesson there for the next manager?
By March 2021, the Blues were already out of the running for the Premier League but still in with a chance of retaining their Champions League title and making another FA Cup final when sanctions were imposed by the British Government because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It was clear that owner Roman Abramovich would have to sell up if Chelsea were to survive, but until a deal was completed by Todd Boehly's consortium in May, those sanctions had an adverse effect. The club shop was shut immediately, attendances at Stamford Bridge were reduced because ticket sales were limited, and most damagingly no signings could be made or contracts renewed. So Tuchel was operating with one hand tied behind his back, both on and off the pitch, before sanctions were lifted – by which time key players had decided to go, and transfer targets had agreed to go elsewhere.
When Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard, the first thing he did was to tighten up Chelsea's defence. Starting with a goalless draw against Wolves, Chelsea went on a 14 game unbeaten run, winning ten of those games and keeping 12 clean sheets. By contrast, in Tuchel's final 14 games in charge, Chelsea won only five games and kept only four clean sheets. Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy had been superb in Tuchel's first few months, but has gradually declined and his loss of form meant he lost his place back to Kepa Arrizabalaga for Tuchel's final game, in Zagreb on Tuesday.
Chelsea were not helped by the loss of regular central defenders Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger, who was one of their best players last season. Replacements Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana have yet to prove adequate replacements.
Todd Boehly was always going to bring in his own executives to run the club, and the loss of Marina Granovskaia and in particular Petr Cech this summer left Tuchel without his most supportive contacts in the board room. The pair, effectively chief executive and sporting director respectively, had been instrumental in appointing the German, and were responsible for player transfers and contracts, a role that was taken over jointly this summer by Boehly and Tuchel, who admitted only last weekend that he was out of his comfort zone dealing with such affairs, and preferred to focus on his coaching duties. Chelsea have yet to replace Cech with a new Director of Football, and that might turn out to be as important an appointment as finding a new manager. Having spent close to €300m on Tuchel’s advice in this transfer window, Boehly will surely be more sparing with his cash going forward.
Tuchel has a track record of falling out with those around him, in the board room and the dressing room, and it is thought the same eventually occurred at Chelsea. Even after leading them to victory in the Champions League final, there were players unhappy with their lack of opportunity. Hakim Ziyech has hardly featured, Timo Werner was sidelined and eventually sold at a huge loss, and even Romelu Lukaku, whose signing for a club record €100 million Euros was sanctioned by Tuchel, became disillusioned very quickly. The Belgian's interview with Sky Italia last December hinted at his own problems with the manager,and he was also marginalised before being sent back to Inter on loan last summer.
This season, dressing room dissent has apparently grown more widespread and cannot have been helped by Tuchel's public criticism of his players as 'soft' and 'too easily bullied' after losing at Southampton.
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