When backing Romelu Lukaku to rediscover his form at Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel said last week that the fortunes of a struggling striker can turn around in the blink of an eye.
Tuchel could well have been talking about Timo Werner, whose toils since his £47.5million move from RB Leipzig in 2020 are well documented.
But, as Chelsea gear up for a defining week in their season, Werner has a chance to transform his image at Stamford Bridge.
Ahead of two huge matches this week against Real Madrid and Crystal Palace, Werner scored twice in a brilliant performance as the European champions bounced back from successive defeats to thrash Southampton 6-0 on Saturday.
Tuchel said Werner’s first Premier League goals since October were a reminder that he is “still an important player of this club and group”.
It should give Werner a timely confidence boost as Chelsea head to Spain for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Real tomorrow.
With Lukaku’s again ruled out after he missed the win over Southampton with an Achilles problem, Werner is likely to keep his place in the team.
Tuchel says the pressure is on the 26-year-old to start delivering on a more consistent basis.
It is hard to escape the feeling that Werner will never be a long-term solution.
But if he can help them turn things around at the Bernabeu, and then back that up with another standout display against Palace in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday, then it could turn his Chelsea career around.
“At some point there are no words, you have to help yourself,” said Tuchel.
“You sign up for Chelsea, you sign up for a top club, you have to live up to it and you have to accept the pressure that comes with it and you have to help yourself.
“[His attitude is] always [good] but he still needs to learn to adapt through moments like this because he used to play regularly and used to play teams that are built for him.
“He played for a transition team before and sometimes we have a lot of ball possession. He needs to adapt and adapt to the physicality still of the League. It’s still a process and the process is surely not finished but it was a step in the right direction.”
