Thomas Tuchel did not hide his frustration over the strain on his players during a taxing winter period back in January. "We are tired, mentally and physically. You can see it in our performance. It's as easy as that," Tuchel remarked after a disappointing 1-1 draw at the Amex Stadium on a cold Tuesday night against Brighton.
"We have played since November; we play and play and play. We need to recharge the batteries and disconnect. This is my feeling."
Tuchel will be hoping next season does not bring a similar problem and a sudden u-turn by the Premier League might be about to give him a major helping hand. Premier League clubs are set to vote tomorrow and agree to five substitutions per team being permitted from next season.
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After several attempts to pass this rule change have failed, it is believed that there is now enough support for it to go through at tomorrow's stakeholder's meeting. In the past, it had been argued that mid and smaller Premier League clubs felt the increase would hand an unfair advantage to the bigger clubs capable of amassing squads with more quality and depth.
But as we have seen this season, it is not only top coaches supporting this change amid the ever-increasing intensity of Premier League competition.
"I completely agree [with some other managers] that we need five subs." Brentford boss Thomas Frank told reporters in December.
"I’ve always wanted that, and I said it last year in the Championship and again earlier this year. I know we are one of the clubs in the Premier League with the lowest budget and probably the thinnest squad, but I still think that will help all of us. I don't know who takes that decision – apparently, it’s not the league – but I think we should do that relatively quickly."
This will massively help Tuchel heading into next season, consistently an advocate for five-subs, saying as much back at a similar time to Frank in the thick of the festive period.
"I just can say on this occasion I would love to push for five substitutions because five substitutions were made to protect the players when coronavirus popped up and made life difficult," he stated.
"I think the situation is very serious and very challenging so if we decided to keep on playing at least we should have five changes to control the load."
At the time of his comments preceding a trip to Aston Villa on Boxing Day, Tuchel was having to manage a depleted squad, suffering the effects of several positive COVID tests that ruled players out for up to 10 days, whilst none of Chelsea's fixtures were called off despite a flurry of postponements elsewhere.
This stretched Chelsea players like Trevoh Chalobah just returning from an injury to play more than expected, picking up further knocks before an injury kept him out of action after a draw with Liverpool on New Year's Day. It limited Tuchel's ability to alter things within games, against Brighton on the 29th of December having to use two of his three changes to replace injured players.
Outside the Premier League, in the Champions League, FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Carabao Cup and Club World Cup, Tuchel has had the privilege of five subs, which he has used to give fringe players opportunities, extra rest to others and experiment tactically.
As I wrote about recently regarding the number of injuries Chelsea have suffered being the highest in the Premier League this season, this move would hopefully lessen the load on fatigued players and prevent similar in the future.
Tuchel has shown his nous with a larger squad, liking the number of options and favouring a liberal use of rotation. This change would only benefit his approach, particularly with Chelsea's schedule unlikely to lessen.
It could also help players' fitness around next year as the FIFA World Cup takes place during winter and is likely to force rotation as players return slowly from international duty.
