The same old story is being written over and over again. The mentality at Chelsea football club continues to be questioned. Even after winning the Champions League.
Thomas Tuchel took to the press to confirm the speculation around his players’ mentality. After drawing 3-3 to Zenit St Petersburg, Tuchel was admittedly disappointed and so were the fans.
Unfortunately, we have seen these kinds of performances one too many times. Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, and Frank Lampard all have said the exact same thing.
There’s a sort of strange air in the Chelsea camp that is being consumed. It’s affecting our mentality but if anyone can change the narrative, it will be Super Thomas Tuchel.
"Our behaviour changes when we are ahead, this is something we cannot do. We have to overcome adversity. The challenge is to close the door and minimise possibilities. We cannot drop because we are in the lead and this is happening to us right now." Tuchel said after the Zenit St Petersburg match in Russia.
Sounds like he is talking about the same old mentality problems that Chelsea has suffered with in the past. Dropping points from winning positions is always a tough pill to swallow. Especially when you concede six goals in two matches. It just doesn’t make sense as to how a team that has been playing so consistently well can slip up in this manner.
Tuchel did not hold back in his Champions League post-match press conference. It’s sad that it wasn't so long ago that Lampard spoke about the same issue following a loss to West Ham in 2020 as Chelsea boss. He said,
“The players, in those moments, have to show an extra mentality to do the bits that see a game through like this when you have a lot of domination".
Being ruthless and seeing off matches is an aspect of the game that Chelsea has lacked in recent years. That mentality that Lampard referred to is something Manchester City has had in abundance. It's the reason why they are challenging for the Premier League title every single season.
Mourinho and Conte have also shared this same issue with the Blues. Whilst both managers left a sour taste in the mouths of the fans, it was difficult to believe that the players were the issue. Sarri continued to spread the same narrative and that’s when the fan base began to accept that the mentality needed to change.
“If we play eight matches like in the first half we can do everything, but I’m worried about our mentality,” said Sarri when talking about the subject in 2019.
He went on to say “We played the best 45 minutes of our season in the first half then suddenly at the beginning of the second we stopped playing. I don’t know why. It is difficult to explain.”
Eleven months into Tuchels tenure has sparked him to talk about the mentality. It could be just a moment of frustration for the Chelsea boss. Maybe it was just the personnel selected against Zenit that prompted this mentality issue to arise. There’s a number of injuries in our team that may have the mentality needed to bring this Chelsea squad back to winning ways.
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