Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea stats: Last 50 games show enormous defensive decline | OneFootball

The big news of today? Thomas Tuchel was sacked and relieved of his duties as manager of Chelsea football club.

As you’re probably well aware, that came as quite a surprise to the footballing world, despite the Blues enjoying a pretty shoddy start to the 2022/2023 season.

After all, it wasn’t so long ago that Tuchel was being compared to the modern greatest of the Premier League that are Pep Guardiola and his German compatriot, Jurgen Klopp.

He led Chelsea to the Champions League title in his first season at the club, and also won them the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

So, Tuchel can hold his head up high and know that he gave a very impressive account of himself at Chelsea – especially in the first half of his reign.

In the second half, well, things weren’t actually all that good.

After initially looking like they were going to challenge for the title in the 2021/2022 Premier League season, Chelsea dropped off around the Christmas period and in the end barely even scraped the top four.

Add that to the poor start they’ve endured to the current campaign and it makes for some pretty interesting reading when coming to assess the statistics behind his time as Chelsea boss.

Comparing Tuchel’s first 50 games with his last 50

Interestingly, Tuchel took charge of precisely 100 matches as Chelsea manager, which is pretty handy when it comes to this comparison.

So, let’s take a look at how we fared in the first half of his reign.

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First 50 (27th Jan 2021 – 23rd Nov 2021)

WINS: 32 DRAWS: 11LOSSES: 7 GOALS FOR: 81GOALS AGAINST: 24CLEAN SHEETS: 31

Now, that, is pretty darn impressive.

Just consider the fact that Tuchel came into the club halfway through the season and was instantly able to turn them into an effective unit.

The key behind his early success – and ultimately the club’s Champions League victory – was obviously the defence.

As shown above, they conceded just 24 goals across his opening 50 matches and kept a clean sheet in more than 60% of those outings – that’s staggeringly good.

Although, upon reviewing his last 50 games in charge, it’s clear that what initially gave him so much success, might have ultimately cost him his job…

Last 50 (28th Nov 2021 – present)

WINS: 28 DRAWS: 13LOSSES: 9GOALS FOR: 87 GOALS AGAINST: 53CLEAN SHEETS: 18

A few added losses and draws, but to be fair to Tuchel, the results aren’t shockingly bad and probably not sack-worthy.

However, the amount of goals Chelsea were shipping in recent times will no doubt have been of major concern to Todd Boehly, with the figure more than doubling from the last assessment period to a total of 53.

That metric represents a real decline in the team’s performance and, ultimately, could have been a key reason in Boehly’s decision to relieve the German of his duties.