Antonio Rudiger has revealed one of the differences between former Chelsea head Frank Lampard and his replacement Thomas Tuchel.
Chelsea legend Lampard spent 18 months at the club before being sacked and replaced by the former Paris Saint-Germain and Dortmund manager Tuchel last month.
Lampard led the blues to fourth in the Premier League and to the FA Cup final in his first campaign in charge but was sacked with the London club sitting ninth in the table after a poor run of form.
They have enjoyed an upturn in results since Tuchel took over, with the club winning their last three games to climb to fifth in the league table, one point behind Liverpool ahead of Monday’s game against Newcastle.
Rudiger says Tuchel ‘knows what he wants’ from his players and says he is different from Lampard in how he wants the club to win the ball back.
He told Sky Sports: ‘Because of the results, it’s been good [under Tuchel so far]. ‘I think the coach knows what he wants. He has a way of playing football and you can see from the games, the players have adapted very quickly to that.
‘From every coach, you want him to improve you. I don’t want to hear what I’m doing good, I want to hear what I’m not doing good and what I can improve. This is what I want to see from him.
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‘In general, the whole season, when it comes to defending, compared to other seasons, we did very well.
‘That also started with Lampard and now the coach has a different idea, which is to keep the opponents up in their own half and try to win the ball back there rather than winning it further down in our half.’
The German defender added: ‘To be honest, in this league – especially in this season – it’s a bit crazy because everyone can beat everyone.
‘You have to take every game 100 per cent, but we have good momentum. Newcastle always give us a tough time.
‘Even the 2-0 when I featured for the first time in the Premier League this season, it wasn’t that easy so I don’t expect an easy match now either. For us and where we want to go with the momentum we have, we want to win.
‘At the end of the day, every game is special for itself. Newcastle play us, one of the bigger teams, so they are motivated and they have also some quality players, definitely. ‘And as you know, in the Premier League, everyone works hard and no game is easy.’
