Thomas Tuchel felt his Chelsea side were not sharp sufficient in both boxes against West Brom and will be trusting to amend that ahead of Wednesday night’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg against Porto in Seville.
The Blues were vanquished for the first time under the German at the end of the week, with West Brom clearing out Stamford Bridge with all three focuses from an insane game that finished 5-2 to the visitors.
Despite driving through Christian Pulisic, a ruddy card to Thiago Silva tipped the scales of the amusement and our head coach felt we did not adjust well sufficient to circumstance and proposed that our protecting was not at the radiant level it has been in later weeks.
‘We were not sharp enough and we didn’t catch the momentum to be sharper, to be closer, and to be more aggressive,’ explained our head coach.
‘We didn’t get tight enough to play as a block and make it harder to break through us. We could do that and then wait for our chances on the counter-attack but we didn’t do this well.
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‘Individually, our defending was not at the level we have become used to from the guys and we need to improve in that sense. It was one of those games where there was a lot of drama in the sense that if things could go wrong, they did go wrong. We got a red card, conceded two goals just before half-time, and then we got an injury at half-time to Christian. In the second half, pretty much every shot they had was a goal.
‘We had a few chances for ourselves but pretty quickly we had the feeling that this was not going to be the day where we could turn the score around.’
In the last Interview Tuchel
Looking ahead to Friday’s draw amid Chelsea’s red-hot form, Tuchel said: “The guys play with a special bond, and results like this give you a certain edge and glue to achieve special things.
“You can only do it with a special atmosphere. I’m pretty sure nobody wants to play against us in the last eight. It will be a big step but there’s no need for us to be afraid.”
After a run of four consecutive eliminations when appearing in the last-16 stage of the Champions League, Chelsea has progressed to the competition’s quarter-finals for the first time since 2013-14 under Jose Mourinho.
“We are not lazy, we are hard-working, a hard-working team. A hard-working team is the best thing you can have as a coach.
“Yes, we are looking for the click, we are looking to be more clinical and precise in the decision making and counter-attacks. Even in the second half, we could finish the game off easily with two or three goals but we are still lacking the last pass.
“But it was nice to see that our offensive guys are involved in these types of goals. It was a big boost.”
