After
Frank Lampard's sacking by Chelsea, what prompted Roman Abramovich to make
Thomas Tuchel his 12th permanent manager in less than 18 years?
While it was a Blue Monday for Lampard, Tuchel will take over at Stamford
Bridge less than a month after his own sacking as PSG boss, on the back of a
fractured relationship with the club's board and the big spenders sitting
third in Ligue 1.
The German has honed a strong CV since getting his first break in management
at Mainz, one year after a young Jurgen Klopp had departed for Borussia
Dortmund in 2009. Tuchel has since gone on to re-establish Dortmund in the
Bundesliga before winning back-to-back Ligue 1 titles with PSG, as well as
leading the club to its first Champions League final, albeit during a tenure
of mixed fortunes in Paris.
Tuchel has long dreamt of a move to the Premier League and has nurtured a
reputation for being tactically astute and developing players, but could the
47-year-old's history of fall-outs with his previous clubs' hierarchies -
something already not unusual at Stamford Bridge - be a worry before he even
enters the hot seat?
A tactical thinker
Tuchel's reputation as a student of the game has been growing ever since he
took the helm at Mainz more than a decade ago, and with Chelsea lacking a
clear identity under Lampard this season, that may well have played a role
in attracting Abramovich to his new manager.
In his first club role, he inherited a squad just promoted to the Bundesliga
but lacking in technical nous. However, under the young manager's guidance,
and some versatile, adaptable tactical calls, they finished ninth in their
first season and twice went on to reach the Europa League qualification
spots, before he resigned in 2014 over a lack of transfer funds.
By that point Tuchel had built his standing in the Bundesliga, aided by his
side's tactical astuteness, including an unusual 5-4-1 formation in his
first meeting with Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich where Mainz took a 1-0
half-time lead before eventually succumbing to a 4-1 defeat.
Like Klopp before him, one hallmark of much of Tuchel's career has been
mastering the Gegenpress, deploying a high intensity out of possession and
pressing high up the pitch to win the ball back in advanced areas, while
generally looking to build with a high tempo and pace in attack.
Not long after taking his role at Mainz, he singled out Guardiola's
Barcelona as an example of a tactical philosophy to follow, saying: "I
believe that Barcelona's outstanding performance is based on the way the
whole team with abandon and passion tried to win the ball back after a
turnover."
Even in PSG's run to the Champions League final last season he showed his
continued willingness to adapt, switching to a 4-3-3 to overturn a first-leg
deficit against former club Borussia Dortmund in the last 16, after
initially setting up to match the German side's 3-4-3 formation.
"From the very beginning, it was very clear he's a very tactical coach,
someone who likes to experiment a lot and changes the system quite often,"
French football expert Jonathan Johnson told Sky Sports News. "That's both
to get to see all the players at his disposal and also find his strongest
line-up, and to fit the game plan to win matches."
High-profile fall-outs
Where Tuchel's appointment may raise the most eyebrows among anyone familiar
with his - and Chelsea's - recent past comes from his public spats with his
former clubs.
At PSG, tension between Tuchel and director Leonardo was long rumoured in
the French press, but bubbled over into the public eye in October 2020 due
to the manager's frustration that captain Thiago Silva, among others, had
not been replaced after leaving to join Chelsea. "If it stays like that, we
can't talk about the same goals," he said when asked about PSG's ambitions
this season. The comment was not well-received.
Neither was it his first outburst aimed at the boardroom. He had openly
criticised Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke in 2017 when the
club agreed to play their Champions League quarter-final match with Monaco
the day after their team bus had been targeted by a bomb. The pair's
relationship remained so strained the press release announcing his sacking
several months later went so far as to state the decision was "in no way"
related to a "disagreement between two people".
Given Chelsea's recent history on the managerial merry-go-round and their
own disputes with Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte in recent years, it would
be no huge surprise should he add the Stamford Bridge board to his list of
fall-outs at some point in his reign.
Developing players
Lampard undoubtedly succeeded in bringing players on during his short tenure
at Stamford Bridge, blooding Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Reece James
among others as they finished fourth in the Premier League last season.
But after spending more than £200m in the summer on new arrivals, the likes
of Timo Werner and Kai Havertz have not adapted to the Premier League in the
manner Chelsea fans, nor crucially Abramovich, would have expected.
In addition to the bonus of bringing in a German compatriot to lead the
team, Abramovich will have looked back keenly at Tuchel's record of
developing players in his career to date, with several impressing enough
under his stewardship to seal Premier League moves.
Indeed, a young Andre Schurrle, who joined Chelsea in 2013, cut his
first-team teeth under Tuchel with Mainz, developing enough for Bayer
Leverkusen to snap him up two years before moving to west London.
Shinji Okazaki and Christian Fuchs, who would both leave Mainz to pick up
Premier League winners' medals with Leicester, then followed. Among the
rest, Ousmane Dembele remains his most impressive apprentice, joining
Barcelona for almost £100m just a season after he had joined Dortmund from
Rennes, such was his improvement under Tuchel's guidance.
"He was always there for me and brought me on a lot," Dembele later said
after his former boss was dismissed by Dortmund two months after his own
departure.
"He is a very good coach with whom I had a great time. But that's how
football is, our management decided like this."
Sky Germany reporter Max Bielefeld told Sky Sports News: "One thing that is
maybe the biggest essence of Tuchel in Germany is that he makes players
better.
"He did it in Dortmund with Dembele, he was a rising star under him and
still today he says he was the most important coach of his career.
"If I look at Chelsea, with Werner and Havertz, they have both flattered to
deceive until now, and his task will be to get those players to perform."
Tuchel's combative personality has not always won him suitors in the
dressing room, however.
While Neymar, still the world's most expensive player, was described as
L'Equipe as "surprised" by his sacking from PSG last month, his relationship
with another of the club's star players, Kylian Mbappe, was reported to have
disintegrated in 2020, and the player was left visibly angry after being
substituted in a game against Montpellier in February.
Familiar faces
Tuchel's knowledge of the Bundesliga and familiarity to Werner and Havertz
will undoubtedly have proven a plus point for Abramovich in his assessment
of choosing Chelsea's next manager, even though the trio have never worked
together before.
But the Chelsea squad does already include some Tuchel alumni, in the form
of two important players at both ends of the pitch.
Christian Pulisic played under the incoming boss at Borussia Dortmund, and
developed from a fringe youth player into one of the club's most potent
attacking outlets during the two years they worked together, making 55
appearances for the club in that time even before his 20th birthday.
"I'm just very thankful for everything [Tuchel] did for me," Pulisic said in
2017. "Tuchel always just trusted me and gave me a chance.
"Of course he's given me tips and feedback with what he sees every day in
training and stuff like that, small things."
Silva, who joined Chelsea last summer and has started nine of the Blues'
last 10 Premier League games, was also Tuchel's captain at PSG - where they
both led the club to the Champions League final and back-to-back Ligue 1
trophies.
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