Chelsea has parted ways with current manager Frank Lampard. The Chelsea Legend took the job in the summer of 2019, on the back of a single season’s experience as a manager at the Championship team Derby County.
Lampard guided Derby to the play-offs but was unable to take the Rams to the promised land. The former Chelsea midfielder also guided Chelsea to an FA cup final and a 4th place finish despite having to deal with a transfer ban.
In the 2020/2021 season, Chelsea’s results have been erratic. After spending £200m on new players in the summer, Chelsea finds themselves ninth in the Premier League after 19 games, 11 points behind leaders Manchester United and five points off Liverpool in fourth.
The club issued a statement by owner Roman Abramovich relieving the English man of his duties after the team’s poor form.
“This was a tough decision for the club, not least because I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank, and I have the utmost respect for him.
“On behalf of everyone at the club, the board, and personally, I would like to thank Frank for his work as head coach and wish him every success in the future. He is an important icon of this great club and his status here remains undiminished. He will always be warmly welcomed back at Stamford Bridge.” said Abramovich
The favorite for the job is former Mainz, Dortmund, and Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel. The German guided PSG to the Champions League final last season and won a DFB-Pokal, the German FA cup in 2016/2017.
Tuchel has established himself as one of the brightest coaches in world football in Germany and France. The German has a chequered past but comes with many good qualities, and Chelsea fans will be hoping his positive footballing philosophy rubs off on the players.
Tuchel’s managerial career began as a youth team coach at VfB Stuttgart, and he would then move to Augsburg FC appointed as their U19 Head Coach.
Tuchel was then invited to take over the U19 side of Mainz 05 – whose first team had just been relegated from the Bundesliga under Jurgen Klopp’s leadership.
At Mainz 05, Tuchel would catch the eye of many after winning the 2009 German Youth Championship. He took his first top-level job at Mainz aged 36 and after just nine years as a coach.
Here is the good, bad, and ugly of Thomas Tuchel and what Chelsea fans should expect.
The Good
At Dortmund, Tuchel became tactically flexible. The Germans use the 4-2-3-1/4-1-4-1 formation. As time went on, Tuchel’s side would adopt shapes like the 3-2-5 or 3-2-4-1-shape in possession, which allowed the likes of Piszczek to drop deep to become the third center-back in this formation.
Tuchel adopted a side that had been accustomed to Jürgen Klopp’s gegenpressing and quick counter-attacks. Tuchel set about adding more balance in the middle of the park.
The young coach wanted to incorporate ideas from the Ajax model/Barca with a controlling presence in the middle like Sergio Busquets. His sides like to win the ball high up the pitch and move the ball around with proficiency.
His win percentage at Dortmund was 62.96%, which was better than Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund record. Tuchel’s record is 68 wins, 23 draws, and 17 defeats in 108 games.
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Chelsea fans have been left baffled with Lampard’s decisions, Havertz excelled as a 10, striker or off the right at Bayer Leverkusen. Lampard limited his impact in the box, as a deeper 8, Kante in a defensive midfield position instead of a double pivot, and Giroud left on the bench, etc.
Tuchel will add more flexibility and structure to the Chelsea team. At Paris Saint Germain, he often changed his formation to accommodate superstars like Mbappe, Neymar, and Di Maria.
The German will use a variety of formations to find a solution. His use of 4-2-2-2 brought the best out of Di Maria and Neymar, allowing them to roam as inverted playmakers.
PSG became one of the most creative sides in Europe. Paris Saint-Germain scored 90 goals in all competitions, only bettered by Manchester City, who scored 102 goals in all competitions in 2019.
The bad
Thomas Tuchel has a history of falling out with hierarchies at clubs that employ him. His time at Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint Germain have both ended in a sour fashion. He’s never been able to adopt complete control or build a dynasty at clubs due to falling out with people. He requires perfection, and anything less is not acceptable.
At Dortmund, CEO of Borussia Dortmund Hans-Joachim Watzke said he grew tired of Tuchel after they clashed over their Champions League rescheduling with Monaco following an attack on their team bus. On Dortmund’s official website, the CEO wrote:
“There’s some criticism from fans that we have parted ways with Tuchel. We can understand that as a club. BVB was successful with Tuchel for two years in which we have reached our goals.
“But we, sporting director Michael Zorc and I have worn ourselves out in dealing with the coaching staff.”
“Taking your responsibilities is not only about the results, but that’s also not different at Dortmund from any other sporting club. It’s about basic values such as trust, respect, communication, authenticity, identification. It’s about loyalty”.
“In the current situation, we did not see any starting point for a successful work for the future. That’s why we decided not to continue with this coaching staff beyond the season 2016-17.
“For me, it’s important to let you know that it wasn’t a question of whether you could drink a beer together or play cards together or not. If we simplify these things, we would be bad decision-makers. In my opinion, club representatives and the coach don’t need to be close friends”.
“The special relationship that we, Zorc and I, had with Jurgen Klopp wasn’t the standard for the relationship with Thomas Tuchel – and it won’t be for any future Dortmund coach.” Said Watzke.
Former Ajax coach Peter Boaz replaced Tuchel,
Sporting director Leonardo also fell out with Tuchel at PSG after the German hit out at the club’s transfer policy.
Tuchel said: “We lose too many players on free transfers. It is too, too much. We cannot ask this squad the same thing as we did last season.”
Leonardo made his disapproval of Tuchel’s comments known by saying.
“you have to respect the people above you”.
“I didn’t like his comments, the club didn’t like them either,” he said.
“We have to understand the moment we are going through. If someone is not happy, it is easy – we can talk. But if you decide to stay, you have to respect the people above you.
Tuchel was sacked in December and replaced by former player Mauricio Pochettino.
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The ugly
On the 9th of December 2020, Tuchel’s Paris Saint-Germain played Istanbul Basaksehir in a crunch Champions League clash to decide qualification.
The play was initially suspended for almost two hours after a row initiated in the 14th minute when Pierre Webo, Basaksehir’s assistant coach, was sent off.
Video footage emerged which appeared to show Webo, a former Cameroon international, accusing Romanian fourth official Sebastian Coltescu of using racist language. PSG and Basaksehir players walked off the pitch in protest toward the referee.
Thomas Tuchel came under fire for appearing to back the match officials during the incident. A conversation with a Başakşehir player was picked up on the camera.
Başakşehir’s Gulbrandsen: “It’s a racist comment.”
PSG’s Tuchel: “Did you hear him say it?”
Gulbrandsen: “No...”
Tuchel: “So calm relax.”
Gulbrandsen: “… but he said that he said it!”
Tuchel: “You don’t know that,
The German came under intense criticism for this stance and former Chelsea striker Demba Ba had a few words for the German
In an interview with TRT World, Ba said:
‘Hats off to Basaksehir players because they felt something had to be done.
‘Hats off to the players of PSG because they could have stayed on the pitch and said “we are here to play and they’re not” but they decided to stop.
‘One element of Paris that I wish was in front of the camera and explained is how he (Tuchel) treated us because I don’t accept this.
‘I will never accept this and the next time I see him he will hear about it.
Chelsea are a club that doesn’t give managers time or 100% control, so this could be a disaster waiting to happen if Chelsea is not careful.
He will improve the West London club, but his demand for absolute perfection with a board that chop and change managers like seasons change could hand the German his 3rd sacking at a big club.
