BREAKING: Press Conference - Thomas Tuchel delivers team news for Norwich
Plus every word he said in today's presser with injury news on Lukaku and Werner
Here we go guys with another pre-match press conference from Thomas Tuchel on this Friday afternoon.
The Blues face Norwich City at home in the early kick off, and this is a game we are expected to win comfortably especially factoring in the visitors poor form. However, as I said before, this is the Premier League, any team can be a banana skin so we need to be on your game.
First of all, Norwich City boss Daniel Farke was full of praise for his friend, Tuchel today:
"Thomas is one of the greatest coaches on the planet and his CV speaks for itself. We worked together at Dortmund. Now we have such a busy schedule that it's not always easy to meet for a coffee!"
Now please play Billy Gilmour more!
Anyways, here is what Tuchel said..
Lukaku and Werner injuries
“They’re both out. All 3 (Pulisic also) are out tomorrow. No big news, the thing I can say is they are out for tomorrow and Southampton, from there we see what is next. Makes no sense to go into speculations how long it will be. If we did it with Pulisic you would have thought I was a liar. Things can be shorter or longer than expected. Both are in treatment and are positive.
“It’s never a good thing (to give Lukaku a rest). The role was a perfect role for Lukaku to take responsibilities off other players. He was mentally over played but that doesn’t mean we have to constantly rest them. Jorginho and Mason Mount are in the same spot but we don’t have to rest them. They play with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of energy. We trust Romelu to play with his instinct and trust us with his game time. He is absolutely crucial for us. We can’t talk about who is missing we have to talk about solutions. The guys a who stepped in did a good job against Malmo.”
Lukaku again (Tuchel laughing after he just said he didn’t want to speak on his injury again)
“Anything I say now will be pure speculation. What sense will it be for me to talk about that? Sometimes accidents happen and and it happened with Romelu and with Christian.”
Any regrets on Abraham leaving now two strikers are injured?
“No, because football does not work like this you cannot keep a squad of 40 players. Do you think Tammy, Michy and Oli would be in the perfect shape now after having not made the squad. You have to focus on 18, 20, 21 players and that is what we do. It is bad luck that we have injured players in the same position and we have to find solutions.”
False 9 without Lukaku?
Well it depends without Romelu we thought we could play with Timo or Kai as number 9. We don’t call Kai a false 9 because he is also very strong in the last line and arriving in the box. So this is more what we expect from him tomorrow. If you have Romelu he is the reference up front to create space and make spaces. Once we don’t have him the game will be a bit different but we want the same space and same movements and that doesn’t change.”
Kai’s lack of minutes
“To speak the truth there is only one way to make it to the pitch and that is performance. Kai was not on his personal highest level and others were. We were winning so it was necessary that he waited for some matches. He worked hard and showed some resilience and showed some determination to score and be more decisive in training. He got some minutes and he was dangerous and here we go. So much talent and you get the minutes when you deserve it.”
On Daniel Farke
“I like him a lot as a person. He’s very nice and very humble. He was coach of the second team at Dortmund. It was very nice to talk about him and we talk about training and sessions. He is a very good manager. I would have liked to be a player under him because of his people management. He has made it at the highest level in the Premier League and I am delighted. We will do everything to win against him but yes he is doing a fantastic job.”
Billy Gilmour lack of minutes
“I love Billy I always loved him. He decided to go an get a chance to catch some minutes and we thought it was important. First of all I want him to perform and same with our team you make it into teams you need to perform you need to be the top player no matter where you go if you want to make it. He’s our player we are aware of what he can do, changing a club is always a risk. He needs to overcome adversity, now is not the time to talk about coming back, they need to trust him. No player in the world will leave the best players out so he needs to prove that Norwich is a better team with him in.”
Lukaku to come back a better player?
“Yeah but he didn’t demand this break it was an accident. It is just some percentage please don’t underestimate what these players go through they go to the Euros, then the Premier League, then Nations League. There is a lot of things going on and at some point you get tired. If you turn the wheel and turn the wheel you can get tired. Then suddenly you lack the enthusiasm a little bit but there is no major problems. Speaking about it sometimes helps and I get the feeling it helps that we can admit it. We took the decisions together before the Malmo match and we were happy. I can absolutely not see a positive thing in this injury. We will get him back as soon as possible, be positive, and at the same time we need to push the guys that are here.”
Ziyech not playing much
“He fought his way into the team because of performance. Then he had the injury and from there I felt it cost him a lot because maybe I don’t feel him 100% free with his shoulders. We started him several times after that and I felt that even if there is maybe no pain and even if it is subconscious there is something that limits him in his movement and freedom and to turn and to accelerate and deaccelerate. We need time and patience to fight back into the team. We will never lose trust and the patience with him and he will stay an important
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