FLORIDA CUP: ARSENAL FC VS. CHELSEA FC

July 23, 2022

Thomas Tuchel

Camping World Stadium

Chelsea FC

Media Conference

Arsenal FC - 4, Chelsea FC - 0

(Inaudible)

Q. It's been a difficult environment, and has it been a trip that you've managed to enjoy?

THOMAS TUCHEL: It was long. It was long, for sure. Also hard. It was long and we could see -- we could feel the energy, the energy level dropped after Las Vegas and after latest, after the Charlotte game because of a lot of traveling. And very humid and very hot temperature made it tough because we are like now two weeks on the road.

So yeah, that's also a point, but it's not the only point, it's a little point in the explanation why we did not look fresh. I did not expect it today. Also we lowered a bit intensity and volume in training over the last days but not in a way that we could expect to have fresh legs. So that was not the biggest surprise. But there's a difference between being tired and playing like this.

Q. Are you concerned about goal scoring? You've said to us before you have a number of players that can play in that center forward position, but you've struggled for goals in this tournament?

THOMAS TUCHEL: Yeah, for sure. I mean, if you look at the second half -- I mean the first half, it was even hard to escape in a productive way in our own half and to play in the opponent's half and to create. We created the one chance with a shot. But the level of or the amount of dangerous situations, the amount of one against ones, the amount of speed and acceleration in the second half where we, like, dominated the game and where we were the better team from the whistle in the first 22 minutes, but with the first dangerous action, they scored and we did not have too many dangerous situations.

Also we were the better team. But listen, it's the same players. So why should everything change? So I don't think we -- we will see hopefully development but at the moment we have maybe the same issues because we have the same players.

Q. Do you look at Liverpool City --

THOMAS TUCHEL: At the moment, given the last two weeks, given our last week and given the game today we should not mention the two teams in front of us. We got, like, absolutely beaten by a team that does not play Champions League next season, that is behind us. And it seems at the moment far ahead of us.

Q. We got to see Kalidou for the first time tonight.

THOMAS TUCHEL: Yes, was the best player on the pitch for us.

Q. Did it make you feel a little bit more optimistic?

THOMAS TUCHEL: Yeah, it felt incredible, good, I have to say. On an evening where nothing felt good, this felt very good.

Q. How much as well, going back to the kind of tour and summing up the tour, how much do you find that preseasons influence how the actual season goes?

THOMAS TUCHEL: My personal feeling, I don't know if I ever lost a match in preseason 4-0. I cannot remember. I cannot remember not winning two matches in a row in a preseason. I am a huge fan of a strong preseason for everything -- for the atmosphere, for the feeling, for the performance, for the belief.

I do absolutely not -- I'm superstitious, superstitious, but not in a way that I say a bad preseason has to be a good season. That makes no sense for me. So I'm in it. Of course, I'm a part of it. Need to find solutions. We fly home now. And we have one and a half days only and Tuesday afternoon we need to present solutions. We need to present actions, like, we, me, coaching staff, together with our team to stand up again and find a way through this because it hurts at the moment.

Q. You mentioned yesterday leaving decisions late, not only in terms of personnel and acquisitions, but also systems. Considering you started the night with four at the back and finished the night at three at the back, do you feel this has helped as far as forming a defensive identity, as far as the type of system you want to employ?

THOMAS TUCHEL: Yeah, I mean, we discuss this many, many times. If you want to play three in the back you need to have three in the back. If you don't have three in the back it's not worth playing three in the back. And given the fact that Kalidou was ready for 25 minutes today and given the fact, like, who was available, we tried to play 4, 4, 2.

I think it was not a structure problem. We conceded also two goals then with the back five and 2-6, which we're also used to playing. And also the behavior and the structure is much more important how we behave in a structure, how we play a structure and not so much important what we play.

We need to be more lively. We need to be more aggressive. Like I said, the level of commitment, the level of physical input was simply not enough. The adaptation of position, the joy of helping each other, the joy of working hard together was absolutely missing. So it's not a moment to destroy my group because my group of players is a very -- this is the honest analyzing of the game -- and I think it's not worth talking around it. It was like this today.