Thomas Tuchel has recently been sacked by PSG and will be looking for a new club.

What could this mean for Chelsea?

[A Thread]

Thomas Tuchel has seen a fountain of success at his previous clubs, particularly Dortmund and PSG. He’s reached a UCL final, won all there is to win in France and he’s won a Pokal in Germany.

His man-management skills and the level of commitment he requires are essential to his style. Thomas Tuchel likes to work closely with every player and looks to develop their skills.

He utilises several formations to manage players better, for example he used a 4-3-3 last year to take advantage of PSG’s wide playmakers, and he used a 4-2-2-2 following the injuries of Neymar and a Veratti. He often used to a 3-4-2-1 formation at Dortmund, with much success.

This is something we don’t see a lot with Lampard, as he has likes to use players out of position to fit his chosen formation

As you can expect with any good manager, he also changes formation based off the opposition, something which we don’t see a lot of in Frank Lampard

It is difficult to try guess which formation Tuchel will use with this current Chelsea squad, but my best guess is a 4-3-3.

Tuchel likes to attack from the back, and the goalkeeper, Mendy, will often be seen distributing to the centre backs and fullbacks

At PSG, Tuchel used Marquinhos as an CDM, who would stick close to the back four. He would play alongside Veratti who would drop into a deeper role and act as a deep-lying playmaker who would break the lines between defence and offence.

Judging off Kante’s form this season, you can safely assume he will be taking the spot of Marquinhos in this Chelsea team. However in our squad we don’t really have a great replacement for a player like Veratti, so I can expect a signing for a player similar to Manuel Locatelli.

The remaining midfielder would be used to disrupt the oppositions defence by overloading one side of the oppositions area. This role would suit a player of Havertz’s quality. Although, Mount could also be used in this role as he would suit Tuchel’s gegenpress.

Our attack would likely consist of Pulisic, Werner and Ziyech. Pulisic, already familiar of being coached by the German, will provide the flair and drive to break through the oppositions defensive line, similarly to Neymar at PSG. CHO could also occupy a similar role.

Werner, despite his poor form, is still managing to find space and manages to make good runs behind the opposition. He also has an ability to drift around the attack and rotate with other players in game to provide a different approach which Tuchel desires.

Ziyech will provide chance-creation similarly to Di Maria, however due to his current injury record we could often see CHO taking this spot.

While the front three will play between the lines, the remaining players will tend to maintain their formation and rigid defensive structure.

Every player will be kept busy due to Tuchel’s philosophy that players need to aggressively attack the ball after possession is lost. He demands a good work rate from every single one of his players.

While players are required to maintain some type of pressure on the opponents’ ball carrier, there are also precautions taken against highly technical opponents. Chelsea could operate with a deep back four, extend the width of their side and look to block passing avenues.

As soon as the team wins the ball back, an attack will immediately begin to build up again, with Pulisic and Werner potentially making darting runs into space.

Locatelli, for example, can provide this intense pressure to win the ball back and then proceed to play an incisive pass to one of our attackers.

Tuchel enjoys to dominate both space and possession, and loves to utilise wider areas whilst having the capability to penetrate the opponents defence through the middle.

At PSG, Tuchel favoured the left side (40%) but also made use of the right side (30%) and through the middle (30%, highest in Ligue 1). This, unsurprisingly, lead them to finding themselves in the oppositions 18-yard box more than any other team in their league.

At Chelsea currently, we are seeing us being forced out wide by our opponents and repeatedly playing brain dead crosses into the box, when we could utilise better build up play and play through the middle more often.

Tuchel is patient in his build up play, with a surprisingly small percentage of time spent in the oppositions third (24% in UCL).

Players are constantly on the move under this coach, similar to Lampard. He’s always looking to create superiority against the opponents’ press.

It should be noted, however, that Tuchel’s men have been known to be vulnerable against aggressive man-marking.

Tuchel’s overall play style is slightly superior to Franks current tactics, however, I would still love for Frank to succeed as our Manager, and I, despite this thread, would be gutted to see him eventually leave.

I would also like to note he is not my ideal manager, nor do I really want to see him at Chelsea.

Some stats before I end this thread:

Dortmund
108 games
68 wins
23 draws
17 defeats
63% win rate

PSG
127 games
95 wins
13 draws
19 defeats
75% win rate (Highest of any Ligue 1 side EVER)