Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta has opened up on Thomas Tuchel's rotation.
Tuchel has made a very strong start to life in West London, still unbeaten after his first 11 games across all competitions after his side beat Everton on Monday night to strengthen their top four bid.
The German head coach has not been afraid to call upon players who were left in the cold by Frank Lampard, rotating the squad to adapt to his five-at-the-back system and continuing to rotate over the course of his reign.
His latest team selection surprise saw Kai Havertz start in a false nine role against Everton, a move that appeared to work a treat with the German midfielder forcing an own goal and winning a penalty, converted by Jorginho, in the 2-0 win.
But while there has been rotation aplenty, the one constant has been skipper Azpilicueta, who has been a stalwart as part of a three-man centre-back unit, with the Spaniard the only player to play every Premier League minute under Tuchel.
After the win over Everton, Azpilicueta spoke about Tuchel's rotation, telling the Chelsea club website: "That’s a collective mindset.
"When you play for Chelsea, one of the top clubs in the world, you have to fight for your place. Nothing comes easy. When you step on the pitch you have to be at your best.
"In every training session, even when you don’t play, everybody trains very hard, and that’s why when the changes come everybody is ready.
"We have the same idea. Sometimes we adapt to different systems, sometimes in the same system different players which means there is a different style of play, but the most important thing is we are all thinking in the same way."
Speaking about the win over the Toffees, which took the Blues within three points of third-placed Leicester City, Azpilicueta added: "We know we had to recover the ground we lost and every victory is a step forward.
"It was a very good performance. Everton have been getting very good results and we know they are tough, but our team worked perfectly. We played as a team with and without the ball. It’s very pleasing to see the team fighting for the ball and we could have scored even more goals.
"From the striker to the goalkeeper the team is working very hard. Everyone is doing their dirty job.
If you see the way we fight for the ball, the way the strikers press the ball and allow the defenders to push the line high, it’s dangerous. I’m very happy with that because you need that effort in the Premier League.
"We know how tough it is to replicate it every three days. We are in the right way but we are still far from where we want to be. We have to keep working because we haven’t done anything yet."
