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Thomas Tuchel: "Super happy"
Photo:
ROBERT GHEMENT / EPA
How much time does a trainer need to convey his ideas?
How long does it take for a good team to become a world class team?
It's been almost a month since Thomas Tuchel was introduced as the new Chelsea coach.
Eight competitive games are behind him.
He won six, lost none, and the team conceded two goals.
The duel with Atlético Madrid in the first leg of the first leg of the Champions League was the biggest acid test for Tuchel's Chelsea so far.
It won.
Olivier Giroud scored a spectacular winner, the Londoners not allowing a single shot on target.
At the press conference after the game, Tuchel made a relaxed impression.
He joked, he laughed, he said he was "super happy" for his team.
To say goodbye there was a fistbump with the translator.
It works for Tuchel.
World class, his team is still a long way from that, despite the amazing progress made in recent weeks.
The London squad isn't really made to win big titles right now.
Too many offensive players are not far enough in their development, like Mason Mount, 22, and Kai Havertz, 21. The youngest of them is Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The 20-year-old is considered to be one of the greatest offensive talents in English football.
FC Bayern had once publicly advertised for him, they said they had agreed with the player at the time.
Then he was badly injured.
Under Tuchel's predecessor Frank Lampard, Hudson-Odoi only made three starting eleven games in the current Premier League season.
But Tuchel made him a regular player, he gave him an unusual role.
In Tuchel's 3-2-4-1 system, Hudson-Odoi usually takes on the role of right winger.
Often there it is the end point of longer ball series.
The team plays the ball to the left, lured the opponent, and then quickly shifted to the other side to Hudson-Odoi, who should use his strength in one-on-one.
That sounds good in theory, but in practice it sometimes fails.
There was an incident last Saturday that made waves in England.
In a league game Tuchel brought Hudson-Odoi to the second half, in the 76th minute he replaced him again.
Afterwards, he sharply criticized the player.
Not because he didn't score, but because he wasn't aggressive enough when the team lost the ball.
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Callum Hudson-Odoi (r., Archive picture)
Photo: Mike Hewitt / AP
This shows what priorities Tuchel set in his early weeks at Chelsea.
If you will, Hudson-Odoi had to be used to get the coach to send his message to the team.
Hold the ball. If you lose it, try again.
If you switch off, you lose: the game and your place in the team.
Hudson-Odoi was in the starting line-up against Atlético, and he was replaced after 80 minutes.
This time without any resentment.
Probably because of scenes like the one after about half an hour, when Chelsea attacked once more over Hudson-Odoi's side, but lost the ball.
All tension escaped from Hudson-Odoi's body, then it seemed to run through him, because suddenly he ran off in the direction of his opponent and tipped the ball off his foot.
Neither a shot on goal succeeded nor a template for a chance.
But the opponent also remained harmless.
At the moment that seems to be the main thing.
At Paris Saint-Germain and before that in Dortmund, Tuchel had trained teams whose offensive could hardly be defended.
At Chelsea there can be no question of that, as the ten goals in eight games testify.
Even against outsiders, the team does not find it easy to create scoring opportunities.
Against Atlético's defense, one of the best in the world, it hardly succeeded at all.
But what has massively improved under Tuchel is counter-pressing, i.e. repositioning after losing the ball.
And the structure in possession of the ball.
Both are interrelated and mean that the Chelsea team, which is rich in offensive talent, scores few goals, but concedes even fewer.
That is Tuchel's basis.
"We must not be satisfied"
A special constellation arose on Tuesday evening.
Atlético outnumbered in defense, Chelsea in the build-up.
Some defend wonderfully without a ball, others no less successfully with it.
A stalemate that would have resulted in a 0-0 if one of the two teams hadn't flinched.
Chelsea's professionals could have lost their faith in Tuchel's ball running because it did not lead to the desired result for a long time.
Suddenly someone who is supposed to protect himself dribbles forward, and rum, Atlético counters, hits, wins.
But Chelsea's team didn't flinch.
She let the ball go.
"We had to accept that it would be very difficult to create opportunities," said Tuchel after the game.
It was a praise for the patience of his players, which also meant that they believed in him, Tuchel, and his ideas.
The 47-year-old convinced her of his style and the team seem to be following him.
This is often the case with new coaches.
How quickly Chelsea professionals seem to have adopted Tuchel's approaches is a good sign for the coach.
But Chelsea has not progressed in the Champions League yet.
The second leg is on March 17th, in London.
Until then, tough opponents are waiting: Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton, Leeds.
"We must not be satisfied," said Tuchel.
“We can't rest.
These games will push us to our limits. "
The real question is where these limits lie.
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