The record spenders from this summer’s transfer market, Chelsea were humbled by Dinamo Zagreb in their UEFA Champions League Group E opener. The Blues went down 1-0 to the Croatian side, despite Thomas Tuchel throwing four of his stars acquired through the hefty spending of £259 million into the starting line-up. Chelsea were shocked in the 13th minute by a Mislav Orsic strike as they failed to stage a comeback throughout the remaining 77 minutes.
Thomas Tuchel has been dealing with his side’s inconsistent form in recent games who have picked just three wins from their six Premier League games. The German has been handed with seven new signings from this summer transfer market, yet the club is languishing sixth in the league. Chelsea are striving to achieve positive results as their new players are struggling to click into form.
Chelsea’s defeat out of the ‘Blue’ as Thomas Tuchel rips apart his players
Thomas Tuchel started Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly, who cost them a combined fee of £100 million in the defense against Zagreb. Raheem Sterling [££50m] and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang [£10m] were also slotted in the starting eleven as none of the heavyweight signings could turn their charm and help the Blues.
The Chelsea boss tore apart his players’ dismal performance against the Croatian side, as he went on in his post-match press conference:
“Of course I’m frustrated; there’s too much to analyse, I’m a part of it, and we are clearly not where we need to be. At the moment everything is missing. I need to find solutions for the next match, of course. This is a huge under-performance from all of us. It’s not precise enough, not clinical enough and it’s not aggressive enough.
“It’s not determined enough individually and as a team and that’s why we lost. I’m angry with myself and I’m angry with our performance. It’s for me to find the solution and find the reason why. Obviously they are under-performing and I don’t really know where this performance comes from.
“A lack of hunger and a lack of intensity to actually do the things that we need at the highest level. We are clearly not where we want to be. It was the story of the last few games — we started OK for 15 or 20 minutes but then lacked determination, precision and maybe even lacked the smell of blood.”
The Londoners were on the back of a gutsy 2-1 win over West Ham in their last game, as Tuchel admit he expected a total dominance against the low-key Dinamo Zagreb from his side. However, as evident the problems have only increased at Stamford Bridge following the shocking loss against the Croatian club.
“I didn’t see it coming. Obviously I was in the wrong movie. I thought that the last game helped us. I thought we showed a reaction in a difficult moment against West Ham, got the result in the moments when you need a bit of luck. We had good training sessions, I thought the team was prepared. I didn’t see it coming, that’s why I’m angry at myself.
“We had an amount of deliveries, of spaces and an amount of ball that should be enough to have far more attempts but we did not. We conceded a goal with two players in a counter-attack that has never happened before. I don’t understand why it happened today. It’s clearly my job to analyse it so that will continue. We need to be much better. We are not happy with our results, we are not happy with the way we play in general. There is no day off in the planning and there cannot be a day off at the moment.”
Chelsea face a trip to Fulham next, as Tuchel will be fuming for a response from his expensive squad. But the Cottagers too are in some good form, collecting points off Liverpool and posing enough problems for Tottenham and Arsenal in their match-ups. Tuchel’s first plan should be to contain Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic who has so far netted 6 goals in the league. Looking at the current condition of the Chelsea defense, Mitrovic will be licking his lips to face the Blues.