Chelsea star makes it clear Thomas Tuchel ‘was not happy’
Cesar Azpilicueta has said that Chelsea got a dressing down at half-time on Sunday and that Thomas Tuchel “was not happy”.
After being second best in the first half, Tuchel read the riot act to his under-performing stars against Tottenham.
The German coach introduced N’Golo Kante for Mason Mount and switched formation and it paid immediate dividends.
Thiago Silva and the Frenchman both scored in the opening 12 minutes of the second half, with Antonio Rudiger adding a late third.
Azpilicueta admitted afterwards that Tuchel’s dressing down at half-time had the desired effect as it got a reaction out of the players.
“He [Tuchel] was not happy, we were not happy with our performance,” the Chelsea captain told Sky Sports.
“Even though we were able to arrive around the box we did not shoot on target, they created a few chances where we could have conceded.
“Even in duels we were not as good as we usually are. We were sometimes too open and it was something that we had to address.
“Playing like this, we couldn’t expect to win the game. The best thing we could do was to arrive at half-time at 0-0.
“The reaction was good, everyone is humble enough to accept this and go again and give a strong second half.”
Tuchel said after the 3-0 win: “I was absolutely not happy with the first 45 minutes.
“There were individual performances which were great in the first half from Kepa and Thiago Silva. Even more players were good but in general we lacked intent, energy and relentlessness in duels and 50-50 balls.
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Mount substitution was ‘hard choice’
“I had the feeling we wanted to impress by pure skills but in derbies like this it is not always about just skills. It is about aggression, winning duels and performing better as a team. We spoke clearly about it at half time.
“In the second half it was a very good performance and a deserved win in the second half. It was a very good reaction so I am happy with the performance in the second half.”
Regarding his match-defining decision to hook Mount for Kante, Tuchel added: “It was a hard choice for Mount and it was a bit more defensive from Kante but I wanted to give energy.
“I was not ready to talk about the spaces here and there. It was about the second balls and duels. It was about growing in confidence through energy and ball wins and higher work-rate. That was the signal to the talk more or less.”
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