Sounds like hairdryers were set to high and hot yesterday at Cobham, as Thomas Tuchel gave the team a piece of his mind following Wednesday night’s debacle against Real Madrid, which came just a few days after a similar debacle against Brentford.
This wasn’t a time for discussion, as the head coach told today’s press conference. It was a time for the players to sit down, shut up, and pay attention. Oh, and to do better of course.
We haven’t had to deal with too much adversity (on the pitch anyway) in Tuchel’s time, with the team playing a very controlled, structured style of football with the express main purpose of being “hard to beat”. Losses, the few that we’ve had, have rarely been lopsided. Now we’ve had two such defeats in the space of just five days. “Untypical” is what Tuchel’s been calling it, clearly bewildered by the team’s sudden inability to execute familiar instructions consistently and at the high level we’ve become used it.
So hopefully the hairdryer treatment will have worked.