“Soft, soft, soft,” said Thomas Tuchel, the repetition leaving no one in any doubt about his verdict on the goals Chelsea let in at Southampton. His vocabulary – cheap, sloppy, a lack of concentration, a different mentality, toughen up – laid bare his dissatisfaction.
Tuchel’s time at Stamford Bridge has been based on a form of hardness. Chelsea were hard to beat and hard to score against when they conceded just two goals in his first 14 games and just two in seven knockout matches in a successful Champions League campaign. Their mental strength was apparent as their results were better on the road. They felt battle-hardened, not soft.
