Thomas Tuchel concedes he made a tactical ‘mistake’ by allowing Andreas Christensen to be exposed by Vinicius Junior in Chelsea’s defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Tuchel admits Chelsea’s Champions League hopes are all over after Carlo Ancelotti’s side ran out 3-1 winners at Stamford Bridge.
Two good headers from Karim Benzema gave Madrid a two-goal lead after 24 minutes, while Chelsea were struggling to get to grips with Vinicius on Madrid’s left wing.
Kai Havertz pulled a goal back for Chelsea before Tuchel replaced Christensen and N’Golo Kante at the break after two poor displays. A mix-up between Mendy and Rudiger shortly after the restart then allowed Benzema to complete his hat-trick.
When asked about his decision to play Christensen against Vinicius in the first half before telling Reece James to play deeper in the second half, Tuchel said: ‘Yeah, it’s my mistake.
‘We changed the formation and wanted to turn things around because I think personally there was enough where we could hurt them.
‘But we were so far off our level in everything what the game demands, tactically, individually, in shape, in stiffness, in challenges that we tried to play in a new formation and then killed the game off with a big mistake after three minutes [in the second half].’
Asked if Christensen and Kante were at fault in the first half of the clash, Tuchel replied: ‘No, it was a tactical change.
‘It’s like always, it’s never on one player, it’s never on two players, it’s on all of us, I’m included in this. ‘Like I said, individually we lost shape and sharpness and obviously since the international break we don’t look the same.
‘I don’t really have an explanation because before we had a long winning streak and were very competitive, the first half by far was not good enough.
‘If we have the same talk we had five days ago we will still talk about the same defensive performance. But since five days it’s been seven goals conceded, I don’t know, we did not change anything, not in the approach, the line-ups, the system, so I don’t think there is a deeper reason for it.
‘It’s alarming because it’s two games and seven goals, but nothing has changed.’
