Timo Werner believes his form is only improving under Thomas Tuchel and insists the past four months, in which the German has scored just one Premier League goal, have helped him revaluate his game.
Werner arrived at Stamford Bridge last summer from RB Leipzig with a reputation as one of Europe's most fearsome forwards. He struck 34 times for the Bundesliga side in all competitions last term and was expected to maintain that form at Chelsea.
Things started well for Werner in west London. He netted eight goals in his opening 12 games for the Blues and looked at east in the Premier League. However, his goalscoring touch then deserted him and his form quickly followed.
Since November 8, Werner has scored only two goals in all competitions for Chelsea. It's a spell of form in front of goal he has found difficult.
"When you don’t score as a striker it’s very tough, and I never had it in my career before," he told Chelsea's website.
"It was tough for me because I want to help the team, and I want to score because that is my nature. After winning games, scoring goals is the most important thing. In this period, it didn’t work, but you have to learn from these situations.
"You can learn more from bad situations than good situations.
"I learned a lot to trust in myself. I learned to not only think about goals but to give more on the pitch for the team, to fight more for the team defensively, and help my team offensively as much as I can.
"Of course it helps you a lot when a lot of good players and big strikers were also in those situations, but in the end, you are in your own head, you are criticising yourself and thinking why doesn’t it work."
The arrival of Tuchel at the end of January has seen an upturn in Werner's form, although goals remain hard to come by for the Germany international.
Werner won game-altering penalties in victories against Tottenham and Sheffield United and did manage to get on the scoresheet in the 2-0 victory over Newcastle United two weeks ago.
He was also unfortunate to have a goal chalked off by VAR against Liverpool on Thursday.
"You have to keep calm and keep on going,’ explained Werner "A lot of good strikers come to the Premier League and take a year to settle down and adapt to the league.
"At the moment, under the new manager, maybe I don’t score so much, only one goal, but a lot of goals I was involved in with an assist or getting a penalty.
"I think my form is going up, it is getting better and better. I hope this period is gone and I score a few more goals until the end of the season."
