‘If I knew I wouldn’t have done it’– Tuchel reveals one regrets in Chelsea 4-0 win over Malmo
Chelsea comfortably beat Malmo 4-0 at Stamford Bridge in the Champions league group stage last night
However, it was a good performance from The Blues, but equally they were a very poor opposition.
There was some valid groans from Chelsea fans before the game when they saw that Thomas Tuchel had gone with a full strength line up and not trusted a few of his ‘fringe’ players to do the job, especially the fact he had started Romelu Lukaku, who he only spoke about as being physically and mentally fatigued earlier in the week.
Tuchel has revealed one regrets in 4-0 victory over Malmo.
However, Tuchel said he started Lukaku to give him so confidence and help get him firing in front of goal again, which is fair enough.
But of course, Lukaku then went on to get injured, and Tuchel knew he would be facing such questions from fans and the media about why he decided to start Lukaku.
He has answered them, via Football London, he said:
“If I knew before I wouldn’t have done it. But you can’t know it before and it was necessary that he was on the pitch and he started very strong.
I spoke with him about the situation, that I think he carries a bit of mental fatigue around with him. I think that is also normal but he is our number nine and is our reference upfront.
“The best thing against mental fatigue is a goal and we knew we could be the dominant team. We knew we wanted to build our attack today with Mason and Timo around him and him as the reference.
“I had the strong belief that in a Champions League match he could turn things around in terms of scoring and being decisive, which he did because he was super strong in our start. He took the foul and without him maybe it’s not 2-0.
“So I don’t regret it. It’s not a muscle injury or because of physical fatigue. He is a little bit overplayed, this is my opinion and maybe I’m not even right. But this was a moment to give him confidence and let him play. I don’t regret it, things like this can happen. It was bad luck.”