Chelsea: Three lessons learnt in another Brighton draw

3. Micro decisions continue to cost

Thomas Tuchel is an excellent Chelsea manager, especially on the macro, big picture level. It’s his micro, small detail decisions that are sometimes extremely awkward and costly however. Brighton is a good example of that.

The 4-2-2-2 decision is the main one, but Tuchel can’t help it that the formation was ill suited to Brighton’s while Ziyech and Lukaku spent more time going at each other than they ever did the Seagull’s backline. Tuchel can’t really help that Callum Hudson-Odoi is a fantastic, potentially world class player that frequently makes the wrong decision in the box.

But he can see that these things aren’t new. If Tuchel was so upset with Lukaku’s performances against City, why start him instead of Kai Havertz or Timo Werner? Why wait so long to bring subs on when it was pretty clear that Chelsea was in greater danger of conceding a second than scoring a second? Why do some players get chances after poor game after poor game while others wait forever for a single opportunity?

Many of Chelsea’s issues this season are forced from outside factors. Injuries, Covid, and a plain old loss of form have not been kind. But many of the decisions made to solve those issues have hurt more overall than they have helped. Chelsea is incredibly lucky to have someone like Thiago Silva able to hold things together in a bad run of games, just as they are lucky to have someone like Tuchel to have built such a lead that the Blues can take these hits.

But these hits can’t continue and Tuchel’s own hand in them shouldn’t be completely ignored. Far too many players are not being put into positions to succeed and far too many that are given chances haven’t earned them. That all has to stop before another outside factor stops it for Tuchel.

What lessons did you learn from this match? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!