Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel says he ‘loves’ Mateo Kovacic and says the midfielder is ‘super reliable’.
The blues made it four consecutive wins in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory over Newcastle United on Monday.
Kovacic impressed in Chelsea’s midfield alongside Jorginho as goals from Olivier Giroud and Timo Werner were enough to seal the win for Tuchel’s side.
And after the match, Tuchel heaped praises on Kovacic over his attitude and said it is a ‘pleasure’ to work with the Croatia international.
‘I love him, it’s very easy, I love him,’ Tuchel told Chelsea TV. ‘You can wake the guy up at 3am and he would be at Cobham [Chelsea’s training ground] at 3.15am and ready to give everything, ready to listen and ready to play with full energy.
‘You need to calm the guy down in training, [make sure] that he’s not doing too much. ‘He’s super reliable, totally open, yeah, it’s a pleasure to have him.’
Tuchel also urged his players to keep their focus after the victory over Newcastle United put them into fourth spot in the league.
‘Yeah, we have the momentum but it’s hard to create momentum but it’s hard to create momentum,’ said the Chelsea manager.
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‘We should never forget how much work is needed to have consistency in results, to have consistency in away games, home games, cup competitions.
‘We can never lose the understanding of how hard it is and how hard we worked for that. It’s absolutely necessary that we don’t give in one centimetre, one percent of the intensity and determination.
‘Now it’s two days off it’s also necessary to recover mentally and physically. From Thursday on we need full focus. It’s not the end here. I’m sure nobody will behave like this and we will make it absolutely clear it’s not the finish line, there’s a lot of games to play, we cannot have the feeling that we’re already there. We’re in a good way, it’s well deserved, it’s hard work and we have to keep on going.’
