Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by Southampton on Saturday
Thomas Tuchel has warned his misfiring Chelsea stars that it’s not his job to fit the most expensive players into his team.
An extensive summer of rebuilding at Stamford Bridge saw his predecessor Frank Lampard spend well over £200m in the transfer market, with £155.7m alone going towards the signatures of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech.
In spite of those vast sums, results were unimpressive and Lampard was sacked in January.
His replacement Tuchel has seen an improvement, with the side now in fifth and only two points away from the top four, but despite going unbeaten in the German’s opening seven matches Chelsea have failed to score more than two goals in a game since he took over.
Following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton at St Mary’s, Tuchel was asked if one of his main roles was to find a way of moulding the likes of Werner, Havertz, Ziyech and 2019’s £58m signing Christian Pulisic into a cohesive unit.
As quoted by the Sunday Post, he replied: “My job is to win games, not to put some expensive guys together; I absolutely don’t agree.”
He added: “You will score in any structure or concede in any structure; the structure is never the problem or the solution.
“It is always the input of the players, the structure is fluid. You find the spaces where you find the spaces, in different structures you find different spaces.
“For sure you can pick more offensive players but in the moment it is a balanced game. It is about not conceding and also scoring.
“We think day and night about scoring and creating chances, we play high up the pitch and the statistics from the last matches I know we don’t score enough for the amount of touches in the box and the amount of creating.
“In the moment it is a lack of precision, not a lack of opportunities or lack of touches in the box.
“It is a lack of quality in decision-making; I did not feel in the last 10 metres that we would kill the game when it is there to be done.
“I will analyse and it is my job to create more or bigger chances.”
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