Thomas Tuchel says he wants to make Chelsea play like an orchestra, explaining that he occasionally places higher value on performances than results if everything is working in perfect harmony.
Although Tuchel said he would rather have a lucky win than an undeserved defeat when Chelsea visit Tottenham on Thursday, the German often looks beyond the score to see whether things are moving in the right direction. The former Paris Saint-Germain manager spoke about “guided discovery”, a training method that puts players in difficult tactical situations and asks them to find answers, and said that he needed his new team to trust in his long-term vision even after defeats.
“For that we need a good relationship between the players and me,” Tuchel said. “The results will hopefully follow. In the Premier League you cannot control the result. But we can take care of our performance. There will arrive moments when I went into the dressing room after the match and it was a draw, even a defeat, and I was praising the performance.
“But I had to prove it. It is not enough if I say: ‘I was happy.’ We have to be clear what performance is. What do I need to do? What does the manager expect from me and why? What does the team expect from me as a player and how should we play together as a group?
“In the end it’s like an orchestra. We have to follow a certain rhythm. We have to follow a certain discipline, a speed, a style. There will arrive matches where we win and we will be absolutely unhappy and we will show the team why. If you ask me if I prefer tomorrow to win lucky or I lose undeserved, I go for a lucky win. Of course. With a win it’s easier to improve.”
The trip to Tottenham will be Tuchel’s first encounter with José Mourinho, whose coaching style is more pragmatic. Mourinho has a win-at-all-costs mentality, which brought the Portuguese success during two spells with Chelsea.
Tuchel, who signed an initial 18-month deal after replacing Frank Lampard last week, believes in his approach. The 47-year-old, who has fitness concerns over Kai Havertz and Kurt Zouma, was animated after being asked whether “guided discovery” allowed players creative freedom.
“I believe in a disciplined structure,” Tuchel said. “It gives us the chance to play faster because everybody knows where the other guy is. It gives us the chance to give every player a couple of possibilities to choose. When we lose the ball we can start effective counter-pressing.
“It’s just to give possibilities and it always stays the choice of the players, what decision they take. Maybe Mason Mount goes for a different solution than Hakim Ziyech on the same position, for sure he will than for Kai Havertz, but I absolutely want that they have all one, two, three, four options to take. There are players that will take the fifth one or sixth one that I don’t even think about.”
