The writing was on the wall for Thomas Tuchel as he sulked through his press conference at Elland Road. Leeds United had hammered the 2021 Champions League winners in every element of August 21’s demolition, but the former head coach was adamant in blaming his own side.
It was jarring to hear someone considered to have immense tactical authority in the game give so little credit to the victors, but hindsight now casts a far harsher spotlight on what Tuchel said that afternoon. The German put the defeat squarely at the door of his own side and within two-and-a-half weeks he’s out of a job.
Of course, there is far more to Tuchel’s sacking than one defeat in West Yorkshire. Those on the Chelsea beat would suggest this has been coming since pre-season, but Leeds certainly brought things to a head.
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The Blues had scraped a win at lowly Everton before VAR denied them two points in what looked like an outstanding performance against Tottenham Hotspur. The wheels came off as Jesse Marsch and his white-shirted swarm were set loose on what now looks a team bereft of confidence.
“We scored an own goal and gave an awfully cheap set-piece away and conceded from a set-piece,” said Tuchel after the match. “This has simply nothing to do with pressing, simply nothing to do with running less kilometres and nothing to do with the style of Leeds.
“We should not confuse these things. We were able to cope [with] that style, we were able to be the better team, we were able to be one [or] 2-0 ahead.
“We give an own goal away and the set-piece has nothing to do with anything. From there, of course, then it's 2-0 and the belief is on top level and our body language from there, even in the 10 minutes before, was not like it was in the last match and that's how I felt.
“It’s surprising because you cannot be frustrated and if you play Leeds, mistakes happen. I don't see the connection we lost due to the style of Leeds.
“We knew what was coming, but the two goals that cost us the match have nothing to do with the style.”
Sticking the boot into the body language of the players would be followed by a narrow win over struggling Leicester City, a loss to bottom-half Southampton, a VAR-saved win over West Ham United and then last night’s nadir in Croatia. Tuchel’s comments in Leeds made him look deluded and detached from reality.
His blinded analysis of the Leeds loss seems to have only set the foundations for the unravelling to come.
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