Chelsea may have edged a win over Malmo in the UEFA Champions League but Thomas Tuchel wasn’t taking credit for the key tactical change.
The Blues secured a 1-0 victory against Malmo that puts them a step closer to reaching the knockout stages of the competition as Hakim Ziyech scored the only goal of the matches.
Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ziyech caused Malmo’s full-backs all sorts of problems throughout and both players switched flanks after the break.
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Eleven minutes into the second half, it was Hudson-Odoi who played a superb ball into the back post for Ziyech to tap in.
But Tuchel made it clear in his post-match interview the deicison to change wings came from his assistant Arno Michels.
‘All the credit to my assistant Arno [Michels]. He had the idea at half-time. We liked it,’ Tuchel said.
‘We had the feeling when we enter into the space behind the back five we maybe lose some important seconds when Hakim has to switch the ball back on his left foot, and Callum has to switch back on his right foot, and the number eight was closing space.
‘We thought maybe we could save a second or a tenth of a second, and we had a breakthrough on the half-position. ‘Callum could deliver precisely, it was a good ball in, and I’m happy.’
While far from their best, Tuchel was still happy with the concentration and patience his players showed throughout the game.
‘We got the job done,’ he said. ‘We wanted a result, we needed the result, we expected the result, and we delivered.
‘We had a lot of shots, and a lot of touches in the opponents’ half in the first half but we couldn’t score.
‘We wanted to increase the intensity level a bit in the second half to force a goal, and at the moment of highest pressure in the second half we were able to use it with precision and we were clinical enough to score.
‘Control was on our side. We did not suffer difficult situations in our box, we didn’t allow awkward situations. We never lost concentration.’
