Thomas Tuchel is right: Chelsea players are playing too much

One of the themes of Chelsea’s season has arguably been dullness. The Blues are winning, but it has all been rather uninspired. Thomas Tuchel, speaking to the press ahead of the Malmo match, seems to think this is a result of tiredness.

Thomas Tuchel thinks the players are physically and mentally fatigued from having so many games. He’s absolutely right and there is little end in sight.

FIFA, UEFA, and every other international organization has used Covid as the great excuse. “We need to catch up with Nations League/World Cup qualifying!” they’ll cry, as every international break becomes a three match window. That also ignores how that began with friendlies and it began as it was advertised: a way to catch up. When was the last time you saw it advertised like that though? It’s been a while because it’s the new norm.

Ironically, this is just another shade of the same forces that nearly created the Super League. The difference being that instead of a lack of care for fans, here there is a lack of care for players. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of viewing players as some sort of other able to go again and again. But they can’t. They are as human as the rest of us, limits and all.

The question, asked to Tuchel, was mostly about the attack surrounding Romelu Lukaku. Tuchel also brought up Mason Mount and Jorginho as examples of players that are so vital for club and country that they can’t stop. Add on the mental fatigue of travel, concentration, and reflection that top professionals like these guys go through constantly and it is no wonder that they have lost a little bit of “form, fitness, and joy” as Tuchel put it in the presser.

But they aren’t the only ones. Timo Werner, N’Golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta and many others are also finding themselves in this boat. Really, almost every player in first team contention is in this boat. Six weeks of two games a week, one usually away, followed by an international break of three games with high stakes. There is no respite.

There are tangential issues to consider as well. Hakim Ziyech is on the outs of his national team and missed last match through headaches. Less international games is good right? On paper yes, but if it is hurting Ziyech in other ways the net positive is gone. Then there is Christian Pulisic, injured on the last break for “10 days” and still not around. Tuchel said every time he gets close to fitness he feels the pain again and, after such an injury plagued time in London, that makes it hard to recover.

Tuchel, for his part, has looked for ways to get these guys out of the firing line. Mount’s been rested more and more and seemingly Jorginho is joining him. Maybe Lukaku now too given an easier set of fixtures. But how does one rotate a team where everyone is physically tired and mentally exhausted? Do you do it based on who is a bit less tired?

We’ve talked at length about how Chelsea can play better and probably needs to in order to win the titles at the end of the year. But maybe we need to all take a step back and consider that the players are running on empty through no fault of their own. That they are still winning through these hurdles may be a bigger miracle than we have accepted.

These next matches give Tuchel chances to rotate his squad and take the most exhausted out of the firing line. With one more break to go before the long winter slog, Tuchel will have to keep finding these chances.