As his first full season as Chelsea boss gets underway, Thomas Tuchel has been explaining why he does not feel any extra pressure just because the Blues reached the pinnacle of European football by winning the Champions League a few short months ago.
Tuchel admitted in his media duties immediately after that glorious triumph in Porto it may prove hard to top, but on the eve of the new campaign, which starts with the chance to win more European silverware in the form of the Super Cup, he detailed the challenge that awaits him and his players.
‘Does anybody have the recipe how to do better after a Champions League victory?’ started Tuchel. ‘I don’t know. I don’t have it. It was my first Champions League win. It doesn’t feel like pressure because this is what we demand of ourselves.
‘I demand of myself to get better every day, to use my experiences to be the best coach possible, to lead by example, to come to Cobham full of energy in a good mood and ready to continue the journey together. It has just started and hopefully it will be a long journey.
‘The courage now is to face the challenge. The courage is to step up and demand we develop and improve certain things. There were things in our game in the last half-a-season we were very strong at, and we have to maintain that.
‘We have to clearly rebuild the same spirit that put us in the possibility to have all these results. There are a lot of different tasks to fulfil. The most important is we don’t lose sight of that by thinking too much about pressure or expectations.’
Preparation for the new campaign hasn’t been easy for Tuchel and his staff in the wake of a condensed 2020/21 season that went the distance, and then a pair of international tournaments in which Chelsea players went far.
‘It’s been pretty demanding,’ acknowledged the boss.
‘I will tell the story backwards. We arrived here with some players who actually have had one in-house game for 45 minutes, and with some players who have been training for five weeks, and who have four matches in their legs. It’s a widely spread group regarding their physical level.
‘I’m absolutely happy to have the support of the physical department, who did an amazing job to really treat every group individually, and provide the training that was necessary every single day. We have done the best we could, we have had fantastic support, and we arrive to play an important match which is absolutely fine for us.
‘For a lot of players, the preparation to a very demanding season will continue over the next weeks. We will be in much better shape after the next international break.’