Thomas Tuchel is the right man for Chelsea but not above criticism

It is a painful reality of football discourse that if you are not with someone, you are against them. If you are not in total support of a player, manager, or club, you are seen as someone that wants that player sold, that manager fired, and that club to fail. And maybe that is a tangent of criticism all too often devolving into biased agendas, but at the end of the day things can only get better if issues are addressed rather than blindly ignored.

Thomas Tuchel arrived at Chelsea and shored up a porous defense. A locker room that was splitting in different directions was pointed at one target. Together, Tuchel and his Blues did what few thought would be possible when he came in: they won the Champions League. The goal of this season was to continue to build on that and to “hunt” down Manchester City and Liverpool. For most of this season, the Blues have done that. But things took a turn after the victory against Juventus.

Yes, Chelsea has tons of injuries. Yes, Chelsea now has a Covid outbreak. And on top of all that, far too few players are in form and the remainder simply do not seem fit for task. But one person that also needs criticism in recent weeks is Tuchel himself. In no way, shape, or form should he be sacked. But he is absolutely not above criticism despite his achievements last season. This is a new season, with new issues, and his role in them has to be addressed despite him absolutely being the right person to lead Chelsea forward. That is on the only way the club gets better and ensures that Tuchel actually is leading the club forward.

First of all is the recent (and admittedly forced) laissez-faire attitude towards fitness. Tuchel himself admitted that he selected several players, including N’Golo Kante, for the Wolves match despite them not being fit enough. His hand was forced by the Covid outbreak but there are still a few issues here.

Tuchel may not be the one to declare if a player is fit or not, but he is certainly the one to select them. He has to field a team that is competitive, but he also has to look out for the well being of his players. There were alternatives to playing some of the recently returned players, but Tuchel did use them. Instead, he fielded a half fit XI with an undermanned bench rather than use his resources.

His primary resource in this instance is the academy. There are no bubbles currently. The academy season is on break until 2022 at the moment. These players were all available to fill out spots. Yet, Tuchel chose not to call them up. Maybe he was afraid of adding more players to a team already at risk of Covid, but he simply traded that risk for the risk of unfit players getting hurt (again). It was a choice, but one that goes in line with previous choices.

For a significant chunk of games this season, Chelsea has gone without a striker. Sometimes it has worked. Often it has not. Meanwhile, the academy has several strikers that are at least worth a shot. It is unknown why Tuchel is so untrusting of the academy players when at Dortmund he regularly promoted and used kids in his first team. Yes, the result matters and Chelsea can’t take risks, but playing one kid on one day is not a risk. Especially when the alternative has frequently been playing horrendously out of form players out of position.

But those issues are more temporary issues Tuchel can wait out. The injuries will eventually lighten and he’ll be able to field the XI he wants. He has shown that he’ll give players chances, albeit they may need to prove it on loan first rather than directly from the academy. The recent tactical issues, however, is not something he can necessarily wait out.

When Tuchel came in, three at the back solved Chelsea’s primary issue of being wide open on counters. Instead of two centerbacks holding the line, now there was an extra man to delay the counter enough for support to arrive. On the ball, those wide centerbacks could get forward to produce temporary extra men, ensuring that Chelsea didn’t lose the numerical advantage up field by adding a defender.

That’s how it went originally. Now, those wide centerbacks often get high and stay high, leaving the centermost centerback all alone for the counter. Tuchel changed two to three, but the longer this tactic is used, the three becomes just one. If three at the back can no longer guarantee the sturdy defense it once did, maybe it has outlived its current usefulness.

There are reasons to shift away from it in attack as well. Chelsea’s attack has rarely lit the world on fire under Tuchel. They didn’t need to when they were so hard to break down. 1-0 and 2-0 was often plenty enough. But with the clean sheets being much rarer as of late, the Blues have not matched their openness at the back with creativity up top. Largely, the same issues of stagnation exist up top that have existed throughout Tuchel’s tenure. Now, those 1-0’s are often becoming 1-1’s.

Still, Tuchel has persisted with the 3-4-3/3-4-2-1. Briefly, when Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner were both fit, he tried a 3-5-2/3-4-1-2. But this all pales in comparison to the flexibility he had at Paris Saint-Germain. There, he would often use three at the back one game, four at the back the next, and then three again after that. Sometimes he’d play with two up top, other times just the one striker. But he constantly changed it up to react to the opponent. They had no time to figure out his plan.

Four at the back could, ironically, solve the current issues. It would be less likely that just one centerback would be left behind on counters with a centerback pair. Plus, an extra body upfield could free up others to attack more effectively. It doesn’t even have to be a permanent change. Things just need to change enough to break out of this current funk the club finds itself in.

Tuchel is the man to lead Chelsea forward. But he is playing his own part in Chelsea’s recent struggles. We as fans have to admit that and hope he sees these things too. Because, if things do not change, it doesn’t matter if he is the right man for the job or not. The club is ruthless to the just and unjust alike and only results can convince them at the end of the day.