A frustrated Thomas Tuchel gave an honest assessment of his and his team’s performance after watching the first Champions League game of the season end in a 1-0 defeat.
Dinamo Zagreb took the lead early on in Croatia and held it for the rest of the game. The Blues’ attacking play resulted in two shots on target plus Reece James hit the post near the end. The display was far below the standards Tuchel expects.
‘I am angry with myself, I am angry about the performance,’ the head coach analysed. ‘This is a huge under-performance from all of us. It's not precise enough, it's not clinical enough, not aggressive enough. It is not determined enough. It is not enough individually, it is not enough as a team and that is why we lose this game today.’
Tuchel admitted not many players are at the top of their game at the moment, adding:
‘It is for me to find a solution. It is obvious that we underperform individually. I don't really know where this performance today comes from. For me it is a lack of hunger, a lack of intensity and lack of determination to win duels and do the things on the highest level and at the toughest level.
‘You cannot expect to win games in the Premier League and the Champions League like this. They are the toughest competitions that we can play in and we are clearly not where we want to be.
‘I thought we were on a good way and I am surprised by this performance today.’
Tuchel said the reason why he is unhappy with his own contribution is because he did not see a performance like this coming…
‘I thought that the last game helped us, we showed a reaction in a very difficult moment against West Ham. We were lucky in a situation where you need a little bit of luck, and we had good training sessions, I thought the team were prepared.’
Tuchel was asked if Chelsea underestimated Dinamo…
‘Not me personally but if we did, we have a huge problem,’ he declared.