Thomas Tuchel has shot down suggestions that he has changed Chelsea’s system in the wake of Romelu Lukaku’s sharp-tongued interview on life inside Stamford Bridge.
The German has found himself unexpectedly in the crosshairs of his star off-season buy from Inter after the attacker professed his frustrations over life in west London in a weeks-old interview only now coming to light.
The central focus of the forward’s criticism was a shift in tactical approach by his manager – but speaking out in the wake of his player’s words, Tuchel has rubbished the idea that he has overhauled his setup.
What has been said?
“What I read is that he said we changed a system,” the German stated. “If you put a little bit of work in, in our systems, you will find not a lot of system changes, if you find any. So, end of discussion.”
Tuchel further acknowledged that the length between Lukaku’s original interview and its publication has played a part in muddying the waters.
“This is exactly the problem we have out of it because you have a quote from another match in another direction and he says he had a chat with me, and then the suggestion comes and it seems the chat was about how he was not happy how we used him,” he added.
Tuchel expands upon dressing room discussions
Further pressed on his approach, the German continued to mull over the process of addressing concerns internally, adding: “But maybe that was not the chat and we have chats with a lot of players, how we want them to have in position, where they should be when we arrive in certain spaces.
“This is absolutely a super-normal chat and we have it with Romelu. We have a discussion now where it seems that he was on the bench and we benched him because other players suited our style of playing better.
“Romelu played when he came, then he got injured, then he caught Covid. It does not make it better, but that is my situation. He gave an interview so maybe he has a problem so he needs to speak up. I don’t have one.”