Chelsea managers have a history of criticising their own players in public and it rarely ends well for either party.
Since 2016, Jose Mourinho, Maurizio Sarri, Antonio Conte and Frank Lampard have openly discussed mentality problems within their squad during a rocky period of form where they individually felt let down, and sometimes admitting "betrayal."
Despite his Champions League heroics and excellent start to life at Stamford Bridg,e Thomas Tuchel has joined this list already. He hasn't shied away from admitting the deficiencies in his squad at times and has also taken his own share of the burden.
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His burst of annoyance, which built for most of the 90 minutes in the club's 4-0 loss to Arsenal in Florida, was a shock to the system and moved a long way from generic pre-season talk. The manager accepted defeat but also expressed his frustration at his squad, saying, "I saw today a team in Arsenal who are mentally committed to an idea of playing, a level of exhaustion, a level of physical commitment that we could not match.
"Also, a level of mental commitment that we lacked because we have a lot of players who are thinking about leaving and looking at their options. We have players that have left and I think at the moment that's obvious."
Tuchel has previously stated that Chelsea cannot get away with playing at 80 per cent, a mark they were well short of in Florida. It has been hard for him to get the best out of his players so far, but given that Cesar Azpilicueta is keen to move to Barcelona, as is Marcos Alonso, Ross Barkley would prefer to be at a different club and Timo Werner earlier this week said he could be happy anywhere, Tuchel is working with players evidently not totally committed to the cause.
His response to Werner's interview was typically honest. He said: "I’m surprised, I would be very happy as a young guy having a contract at Chelsea Football Club. I would be one of the happiest people on the planet. Show quality, take your place and defend your place. I would be one of the happiest people on the planet having a contract with Chelsea. If he said this, I do not understand.”
This also came amidst reports that Tuchel was 'not the biggest fan' of Werner after the German forward failed to make the desired impact at Stamford Bridge following Tuchel's appointment.
Werner has only scored 10 goals in the league in two seasons for Chelsea and former Blues midfielder Craig Burley thinks that the 26-year-old wants to leave the London club. Speaking to ESPN, he said, "It just seems to me that he’s already thinking in his head, looking from the outside and reading his words, that he’s looking to possibly get out of there. When he is talking about playing time ahead of the World Cup, I think he wants an early exit.”
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