MY ACCOUNT
Thomas Tuchel accused his Chelsea team of showing a lack of hunger after their poor away form continued with a 1-0 Champions League defeat at Dinamo Zagreb.
After making a below-par start in the Premier League, Chelsea were hoping for some respite from their first European outing of the campaign, but Mislav Orsic’s well-taken goal condemned them to a dismal defeat on Tuesday.
The result leaves Chelsea playing catch-up in Group E after losing their first game of a Champions League campaign for just the third time (also against Basel in 2013-14 and Valencia in 2019-20).
Meanwhile, the Blues have lost three successive away games for the first time under Tuchel, enduring their worst run on the road since December 2020 under Frank Lampard.
Having cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines in Croatia, Tuchel said he was surprised by Chelsea’s performance and hit out at their lack of application.
“I didn’t see it coming, obviously I was in the wrong movie,” Tuchel said. “I thought that the last game helped us. I thought the team was prepared, I thought we knew what this is all about.
“I don’t really know where this performance today comes from. A lack of determination, a lack of hunger and a lack of intensity to actually do the things that we need at the highest level.
“We are clearly not where we want to be. I’m angry about our performance.
“It’s not precise enough, it’s not clinical enough, it’s not aggressive enough on the ball, it’s not determined enough.
“It’s not good enough individually, it’s not good enough as a team.”
Chelsea are also on their joint-longest run without a clean sheet under Tuchel, having conceded in six successive matches in all competitions.
Meanwhile, Dinamo became just the second team – alongside Juventus – to beat four different London clubs in European competition (Chelsea, West Ham, Tottenham and Arsenal).
Chelsea could not claim to have been surprised by their opponents then, and Tuchel added: “We expected what we got, and I think we got what we got.
“It was the story of the last few games, we started okay for 15, 20 minutes but then lacked determination, precision and maybe even lacked the smell of blood.
“We conceded a goal with two players in a counter-attack, it’s never happened before. I don’t understand why it happened today.
“It’s clearly my job to analyse it, so this is me analysing from the sideline and it will continue. We need to be much better.
“We are not finished, we are not happy with our results, we are not happy with the way we play in general, but I thought we were on a good way. I’m a bit surprised by this performance today.”
Asked whether Chelsea underestimated Dinamo, he replied: “Me, personally, no. If we did, then we have a huge problem. Honestly, we have a huge problem if we did.”
Chelsea travel to Fulham for their next Premier League match on Saturday, before hosting Salzburg in the Champions League next Wednesday.
