Thomas Tuchel will not be in his regular position patrolling the technical area at Stamford Bridge against Leicester City, and will not be in his dugout for the clash either. The Blues boss will serving a one-match ban after his appeal for the punishment was rejected by the FA Appeal Board.
The German coach admitted in his Friday press conference that he could understand why he received the ban after picking up a red card for his clash with Antonio Conte, but could not comprehend why he was deemed more culpable than his Italian counterpart. With the expectation of not being pitchside on Saturday afternoon, Tuchel already had his plan in place before his ban was confirmed.
The 48-year-old is unconcerned by his inability to be active on the sideline and pleased he can still interact with the players in the changing rooms. The situation seems unproblematic in comparison to when Tuchel could not travel to Abu Dhabi to coach his team in the first stages of Chelsea's Club World Cup campaign.
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Tuchel said: "[I will] Squeeze into a seat into the stand. It depends sometimes on the game. Not always like this. Sometimes I sit a lot. It depends a lot on the situation. Tomorrow I will be in the stands. We have figured out where I will be. It will be above the dugout on the first level. But close to the changing rooms, so they are easy to reach. The distance to the pitch will also help me to be a bit more distant emotionally.
"The worse thing I can tell you is to coach a game at the Club World Cup like I did in February when I had Covid. The team was in Abu Dhabi and I was in an isolated situation in Cobham. To see your team play thousands of kilometres away in the semi final this is actually really horrible. But being in the stadium, in the stands, being able to speak to the team before the game, and at half time it is not such a big deal."
Tuchel did not appear to concerned about the impact of his ban, but following a poor defeat to Leeds it does not seem to be the ideal preparation. Despite an impressive performance against Spurs, Chelsea have had a slow start to the season and it is one the former PSG coach knows must improve.
He said: "If you condense it like this, it sounds horrible. The ban comes from the Tottenham game where my mood in general was very good, was very happy. We were and are still disappointed with the result, also with the influence we had on this result and how we influenced it in the wrong way.
"There are several things we can do better, need to do better. It’s not the moment to lose our head, our mood, or get moody, angry and carry that around for too long. It was the pre-season it was. And then the season starts and we get to know each other better.
"I’m not 100% sure where we are, how we are, who we are. We are in transition as a club and as a team. These things, the bigger they are, they help us get a clearer view, help us with decisions for the upcoming matches, and make things clearer to us and to me. Then we can transport it to the players to improve because we need to improve."
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