Rio Ferdinand is of the opinion that Thomas Tuchel has several problems to solve after his Chelsea side limped to two defeats within a week.
After undergoing a sobering loss at the hands of Manchester City over the weekend, the Blues could not go up a gear, and slipped up against Juventus.
In his post-match interview, Tuchel described the Champions League setback as ‘strange’, and Ferdinand opines that the coach will have his hands full now trying to find solutions to fix the conundrum.
Amid the worrying signs of fatigue and a drop in form, Chelsea were only able to muster just one attempt on target in Turin, and visibly struggled to create clear-cut chances. The bluntness of the frontline failing to even vaguely trouble the opposition goalkeeper throughout the match, the loss was inevitable against a well-balanced City side.
‘This is the conundrum Tuchel has to unpick,’ pundit Ferdinand said on BT Sport.
‘He’s had it all his own way. He hasn’t been in a position where people are questioning his team.
‘His front players didn’t have the spark today.’
Ferdinand, however, is confident that Tuchel will navigate Chelsea out of any trouble, and complimented his work in helming the squad.
‘I don’t have any worries about Thomas Tuchel,’ he said. ‘I think he’s fabulous and he deserves all the time given what he’s done with a Champions League winning team.’
The recent result marked only the second time that Chelsea, the holders of the Champions League, have lost consecutive games since Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard.
The German tactician spoke after the full-time whistle, pointing out the lack of rhythm and freshness from his players during their recent display.
‘Disappointed,’ said Tuchel. ‘We’re all disappointed. It was the tough game we expected. You have to play with zero mistakes in midfield and take the risks in the right moment. To do this you need to be in rhythm, good decision-making.
‘I didn’t feel us fresh today, mentally. We were in training yesterday. Today it was not like this. I don’t know why. If you need any proof, look at the two ball losses in the first half and the cheap goal we gave away.
‘I felt us slow, tired, mentally slow with our decision making. We had ball possession, high recoveries but two crucial ball losses. You can’t have this on this kind of level.’
Federico Chiesa smashed home the only goal of the match, crashing it into the roof of the net just 11 seconds after the start of the second half.
‘It is impossible on this kind of level to concede a goal like this in the first seconds of the second half,’ Tuchel added.
‘When you know what’s coming and you have defensive organization like we have, normally it’s always possible to defend it. We got punished for it.’