https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/12/20/
tuchel-opens-up-on-playing-during-a-covid-outbreak-and-the-chanc
Tuchel opens up on playing during a Covid outbreak and the chances of more
cases
20 Dec 2021
Thomas Tuchel has given an insight into how tough it was to prepare his
team for yesterday's match at Wolverhampton Wanderers amidst a wave of
positive Covid tests in the squad, and fears that there is more to come in
the near future.
https://i.imgur.com/haHlNsu.jpg
Having had a request to postpone the match at Molineux rejected by the
Premier League after the latest new cases of Covid at Chelsea, we took on
Wolves with a severely depleted squad, having just 16 players available
for selection, including N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Trevoh Chalobah,
who were rushed back with only one or two days in training following
injury or Covid.
However, as our head coach explained, the difficulties of playing a match
under the cloud of the pandemic extends much further than just the
availability of players, with the chaotic build-up to the game inevitably
taking a mental toll on the players.
'We were struggling with the preparations because we had for several
consecutive days positive Covid tests in the team,' said Tuchel. 'Then we
travel together for three hours on a bus, we have dinner together and we
have another positive test.
'Knowing we were sat on the bus with them makes a lot of people concerned,
but obviously it was not enough to postpone the match so we had to play.
It was anything else but calm.'
The attempts to keep the players safe even extended to adding further
unscheduled testing to try and catch any new cases which occurred
overnight, with the uncertainty adding another layer of concern. Given the
situation, Tuchel felt he couldn't have asked for any more from his
players.
'At 8.30am in the morning everyone gets a knock at their door to have
another test. Nobody knew about it so we were waking people up, waking
players up who wanted to sleep a bit longer and taking them out of their
rooms, to do a test which maybe they do not trust anymore 100 per cent,
because the last three positive cases were negative on the flow test but
positive on the PCR.
https://i.imgur.com/Wh3WhE1.jpg
Kovacic was one of those rushed back into the team early due to Covid
absences
'Normally we focus and there is a reason why we try to focus on games, but
this time obviously you cannot expect 100 per cent focus. Given the
circumstances I'm very happy with how we reacted, how we played.'
All of which leads us to the issue of whether the German feels he and his
squad are safe playing during the current outbreak, to which he had an
unequivocal answer. He insists that people's health must come first, but
is bracing himself for more of his players to test positive in the coming
days.
'We are talking about protection of the players and a safe environment,
and it's not safe. I would not be surprised if the next tests show up and
we have another positive because we've had four consecutive days with
positive tests and then we travel on the bus and sit together for dinner
and stay together like nothing happened. Hopefully it does stop and we
hope for the best.
'I don't care about the next games, I just care about the tests and the
health of the players. We have had four days of positive tests but what
are the chances that it stops if we keep on travelling and meeting and
everything together? I think it's not a high possibility that it stops,
but fingers crossed.'
Looking at the game against Wolves itself, Tuchel was pleased with what he
saw in the circumstances, especially our second-half performance and a
return to shutting out the opposition with a clean sheet.
'We started very well in the first five minutes, then we lost a bit of
confidence. We were a bit shy and always a step late, had problems
arriving in the challenges at the right moment. We struggled to adapt to
their structure, which was a bit surprising but maybe also not, because
with Trevoh and N'Golo in midfield, we never played like this and they
came from injuries.
'We grew into it and the reaction was very good. The second half was very
strong, I'm absolutely happy with the second half. We had this one big
chance with Christian that we were waiting for, because it's tough to
create chances against Wolves and it's tough to score against them. When
you have this chance you really need to be clinical and precise.
https://i.imgur.com/edfyYvp.jpg
Pulisic came closest to breaking the deadlock for the Blues at Molineux
'In the moment we are not lucky in our games, I have to say, because I
think we did by far enough to win this game. We had a clean sheet again, a
well-deserved clean sheet, so a lot of positive things. All together I can
absolutely live with it. We have won games where we played much worse,
this is for sure.'