Tuchel finally reveals why he made five English substitutions in Juventus defeat
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel wore a frustrated look all through the game in Turin, as the Old Lady were tactically the better side on the night.
Juventus sat deep and blocked every channel as the Blues couldn’t find space in behind their defence.
Chelsea bossed possession in both halves but Juve didn’t allow the Blues have the ball in dangerous areas.
Thomas Tuchel made five second-half changes, and they were all Englishmen, with three players coming from the academy.
At half-time, he brought on Ben Chilwell for Marcos Alonso. He later made three more subs as he brought on Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Trevoh Chalobah. He made the final change late on as he brought in Ross Barkley for Andreas Christensen.
Explaining the reason for his changes, Tuchel said he had as much trust in the players on the bench.
The Chelsea boss said: “I just wanted to give an impact from the bench.
“We had five substitutions and we wanted to use them. We have trust in the players who were on the bench and we wanted to give fresh legs and new energy.”
Tuchel probably brought in Barkley for his shots, but the 27-year-old never got into a shooting position due to the Juventus shape.
He said: “Maybe it’s a shooting problem because if you don’t shoot then you cannot be on target. When you play against a deep block like today, it is allowed to take shots.
“We found the spaces but it was not easy to get a lot of shots, even though there were some chances late in the game where it’s not so hard to find the target.”