Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel spoke at a press conference on Friday afternoon to preview this weekend’s game at Southampton, where the Blues will be looking to bounce back after home defeats to Brentford and Real Madrid.
Tuchel spoke about a number of issues. Here are three key things we learned…
Lukaku and Ziyech are doubts for the Southampton game
“We are a bit in doubt with Romelu and Hakim Ziyech, so we need to see. They were not in training yesterday due to little problems. We hope to have them in training but we need a test and to have confirmation if they are available for tomorrow.”
Hudson-Odoi faces longer on the sidelines
“It doesn’t look so good at the moment. I think it’s not a matter of days at the moment, more a matter of weeks.”
Tuchel addressed the players about recent poor displays
“It was not a discussion type of a meeting. I gave my point of view, which is sometimes necessary.
“We take the players’ view very seriously and often into account, but over the last two games we felt like it was maybe necessary to give our point of view.
“It was behind closed doors in an atmosphere where everybody can take criticism.
“We don’t point fingers and don’t look for people who are guilty – we are in this together. But we needed to point out some things in our game about which we are not happy.
“I love the group and I love to be involved, and we can do better together.
“We constantly try to figure out how we can improve and we need to stop this kind of direction as soon as possible.
“It’s very not like us to defend like this and concede so many goals. We didn’t see it coming and these two matches were very untypical.”
