Thomas Tuchel has nowhere to hide after Chelsea’s recent performances

Thomas Tuchel is a serial winner. The German manager has already won three trophies at Chelsea (Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup) and he’s got the chance to capture his fourth in a week’s time. However, the Blues have largely failed to improve from this time last season to now—both in some key areas of the game and as an entire team. This is partially due to the key injuries they have suffered with Ben Chilwell and Reece James, but even when the wingback pair was healthy, the warning signs were occasionally there. Luckily, he has managed to stay afloat more so than his predecessors, which has him in line to manage a third campaign on the Stamford Bridge touchline next season. This will allow him to shape the team to his liking in the summer.

The brilliance of Tuchel is to thank for the trio of trophies and the other successes throughout the last 13 months. The former Paris Saint-Germain boss has become a deity amongst the Chelsea faithful for the way in which he’s got this team playing, and rightfully so, but that’s not to say that he is immune from any criticism because of those triumphs. Tuchel was reminded on Saturday that his honeymoon period is over in SW6 and there is nowhere to hide anymore.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel can no longer hide from the team’s struggles

Simply put, Chelsea was bailed out by Hakim Ziyech on Saturday. The Blues looked lackluster throughout the majority of the 90 minutes at Selhurst Park. The midfield couldn’t string together a series of passes at times and there was no creativity up top. Kai Havertz was trying his best to make excellent runs to stretch Crystal Palace’s back line, but Romelu Lukaku had no service and Christian Pulisic seemingly ruined every attacking transition with poor decisions or touches.

Chelsea had a week to prepare for the game, a familiar tale over the last few matches, and yet it still looked second best for much of the contest. The Blues had legitimate excuses for their struggles during the winter period with a plethora of injuries, COVID-19 cases, a relentless fixture list and overall fatigue. Yet, those issues have been alleviated for the most part and the poor play still remains. Tuchel and his staff have had almost a week to prepare for each of the Plymouth Argyle, Al Hilal and Crystal Palace fixtures that took place over the course of the past month. Time is the one luxury the Blues were not afforded during the winter period, the past few matches have shown that the problem is rooted within the team, it doesn’t have to do with match preparation.

Tuchel came out after the game talking about the obstacles Chelsea had to deal with since coming back from Abu Dhabi. He noted the lack of sleep in the UAE, the temperature change and the cold multiple players came down with due to the air conditioning on the plane as reasons for the poor display. While a few of those conditions are reasonable reviews of their experiences, the last point is just silly. There is only room for one German manager who finds every excuse under the sun to justify subpar performances and sadly for Tuchel, Jurgen Klopp already wears that hat. Tuchel’s post-match interview seemed to be more of a cop out than anything else.

Chelsea was facing an uphill battle in some respects, but at the end of the day, the Blues should be able to comfortably defeat a mid-table side playing without its best player. Alas, the contest at Selhurst Park was no different than those that took place prior to it.

Chelsea is struggling. Tuchel admitted his side was lucky to win the match and he’s not wrong, he just needs to take more accountability for the poor play. The Blues are getting results—albeit barely—right now, things will just begin to sour if they continue to play this way and begin losing. Tuchel has nowhere to run now with Chelsea having a mostly healthy team and more time to prepare for each game. The excuse list is getting thin, it’s now time to produce or the manager will earn some well-deserved criticism for his inability to get this team firing on all cylinders.

What do you make of the Blues’ recent struggles? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!