Thomas Tuchel explains half-time substitution of Chelsea duo Andreas Christensen and N’Golo Kante vs Real Madrid
Thomas Tuchel has revealed the reason for his half-time substitution decision on Chelsea duo Andreas Christensen and N’Golo Kante during the Champions League loss to Real Madrid. The English club were handed a 3-1 defeat by the visitors, with Karim Benzema scoring a hattrick to put his side in control over the quarter-finals.
The Blues started the game well, but the match was turned on its head as the fixture went on, with Real gaining control over the tempo of the CL clash. The hosts had struggled to cope with the La Liga side as the latter was firmly in control despite Kai Havertz’s goal just five minutes before the break. The German coach tried to change the formation by subbing off Christensen and Kante, which prompted the question from the journalist.
Speaking in the post-match presser (h/t Football.London), Tuchel explained that the substitutions were simply a tactical choice to gain control over the match. He added that such a display can never be blamed on two players as the entire team underperformed on the night.
“No, it was a tactical change. It’s like always, it’s never on one or two players. It’s on all of us. I’m included in this. Like I said, individually we lost shape and challenges. We changed the formation and wanted to turn things around.”
“I think personally there was enough that we could hurt them but we were so far off our level in everything the game demands: tactically, individually, shape, stiffness in challenges. So we tried to play in a new formation, but we killed the game off with a big mistake after three minutes.”
Damning defeat
We cannot blame the 48-year-old boss for trying to change things up as it was necessary despite our good spells on both ends of the first 45 minutes. And the results were visible as we performed far better after the break, but unfortunately, Edouard Mendy’s mistake took away the game from us.
Despite the subs being tactical, Christensen and Kante did not cover themselves in glory either. Both of them had struggled to impose themselves in the match. The centre-back failed to keep Vinicius Junior at bay on the right-hand side of our defence while the midfielder could not dominate the game in the centre of the pitch.
Christensen’s issues were not mostly down to him alone, as there was far too much space for him to cover against Vinicius. The 25-year-old defender was forced to cover the large gap on the right-hand side when Reece James pushed forward in the attack. That could explain the reason for the formation change at half-time.
Kante’s problems are more concerning as this one adds to the subdued displays that we saw from him this year so far. The Frenchman has been far from his best for quite a while, which continued to be the same against Carlo Ancelotti’s side as well. Emmanuel Petit said ahead of the game that the 31-year-old midfielder’s body is affected by the high physical effort that he had put in the past- and it may well be proving to be true.
At least, the good news is we scored at least once vs Madrid and the Danish centre-back along with the French midfielder aren’t injured- as it was just a tactical switch by Tuchel.
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With the second leg of the CL quarter-finals soon to follow, we must show a reaction against Southampton in our next game. Let’s hope that the players can get back to their best as fast as possible, or else we will not stand a chance in the challenge to retain the European title.