“Individually they lost shape”- Tuchel reveals why he subbed off Chelsea duo at half-time vs Madrid
Karim Benzema scored a first half brace with two headers beating Edouard Mendy, but Kai Havertz scored one five minutes before the break.
However, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel made a double change at half-time, as he took off Andreas Christensen and N’Golo Kante at half-time, in the Champions League clash against Real Madrid.
At half-time, Tuchel made two changes to try and impact the game. He took off Andreas Christensen won had been outplayed by Vinicius Jr, and also N’Golo Kante who didn’t have the best of games. In their stead, he brought on Mateo Kovavic and Hakim Ziyech as he reverted to a back four.
Speaking after the game, Tuchel explained that his changes were tactical.
Asked if Christensen and Kante were at fault in the first half, Tuchel replied: “No, it was a tactical change.
“It’s like always, it’s never on one player, it’s never on two players, it’s on all of us, I’m included in this.
“Like I said, individually we lost shape and sharpness and obviously since the international break we don’t look the same.
“I don’t really have an explanation because before we had a long winning streak and were very competitive, the first half by far was not good enough.
“If we have the same talk we had five days ago we will still talk about the same defensive performance. But since five days it’s been seven goals conceded, I don’t know, we did not change anything, not in the approach, the line-ups, the system, so I don’t think there is a deeper reason for it.
“It’s alarming because it’s two games and seven goals, but nothing has changed.”