Thomas Tuchel has worked wonders at Chelsea ever since taking charge at the club but the past one week has been a rude wake-up call for the manager.
Last weekend Chelsea went down to Manchester City and then in midweek, they suffered a 1-0 loss to Juventus in the UCL. And both these losses have shown that the boss still needs to mend some areas – if he wishes to pick up silverwares.
Next up, the Blues face Southampton on Saturday in the Premier League and against the Saints they face the challenge of a high-pressing brand of football.
Southampton might not have made a very good start to their campaign but they have picked up points against teams like Man City and Man United which is an achievement on its own.
Thomas Tuchel knows exactly what his side is going to come up against on Saturday and by the looking of it, the manager has devised a few tactics to overcome the hurdles.
The manager told the press: ‘We have developed some ideas and some solutions of course to deal with this high pressure.
‘In general, you need to be absolutely aware of it. You don’t have time to think when you’re on the ball, we need to anticipate situations, we need to be very good in the timing and distance of our passing, if we want to escape high pressure in our own half.
‘It can also be a possibility to use long balls to escape high pressing, but then you need to have a good position before. The most important thing is that we are aware and that we don’t judge teams by their name or their ranking or their previous results, but we talk about what we see and their behaviour and we need to be aware of an aggressive and intense team.
‘We want to also have the answer to the pressing from Southampton with counter-pressing and to give them a taste of their own medicine, also because it is a part of our game.’
Southampton have already picked up points against some of the bigger oppositions so there’s no way Chelsea can afford to take them lightly. But having said that, the Saints have been really poor in the attacking areas so Thomas Tuchel will primarily have to chalk out a blueprint for his attacking players.
The St Mary’s outfit have failed to win their last 8 away matches meaning the likes of Silva and Rudiger are expected to have a pretty easy outing and if the Blues forwards can score an early goal on then we don’t see them dropping any points on Saturday.
