“It’s the same players” – Thomas Tuchel sends clear message to Todd Boehly | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel has sent a very clear message to Chelsea’s new owners after a heavy defeat to London rivals Arsenal in their final pre-season tour match of America in the early hours of this morning.

It was a hugely concerning game to watch for Chelsea fans, even the most positive and upbeat ones, even the ones who discount pre-season friendlies as unimportant. There was something in the air amongst this Chelsea squad and the management, and something does not sit right at all ahead of a new season which starts in just 13 days time now.

Tuchel’s comments after the game were even more concerning, and it is clear that although he is happy with the two players he has signed so far, he is asking Todd Boehly and co for more, especially pointing at his attack, who he clearly does not rate.

Tuchel says another game with a lack of goals and goal scoring threat is because he has the same players who caused those issues last season.

“The analysing of the season does not change because of this game,” Tuchel said after the game as reported by Football London. “Unfortunately, it proved my point and the last week proves my point. I would prefer to not be right and I did everything to prove myself wrong, but at the moment I feel I was right when I look at the last season and at the parts of the game where we struggled and how we struggled.

“We got sanctioned and players left us, we know that some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is. We had an urgent appeal for quality players and a huge amount of quality players. We’ve got two quality players – that is no doubt – but we are not competitive like this and unfortunately, we could see it today.

“For sure [I am concerned about lack of goalscoring]. If you look at the first half, it was even hard to escape our half in a productive way and to play in the opponent’s half in a positive way and create chances – we had one chance with a shot [that hit the post].

“But the amount of dangerous situations, the amount of one against ones, the amount of accelerations in the second half, where we dominated the game and were the better team in the first 22 minutes, but with their first action they score and we didn’t have too many dangerous situations [after that].

“Listen, it’s the same players, so why should anything change? We will see hopefully development but at the moment, we have the same issues because we have the same players.”