Tuchel doesn’t care about Hudson-Odoi’s confidence or ability … when he starts out

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Thomas Tuchel’s solid start to life as the Chelsea coach hit a bit of a bump yesterday. No, he still hasn’t lost a game – although the 1-1 draw against Southampton was not anything out of the ordinary – but he committed a most cardinal sin in the eyes of the football gods by replacing a replacement without being prompted by injury.

The rarity of such an event ensured that it was at the heart of all post-match discussions, regardless of how or not it might or might not have affected the actual outcome. It also ensured that such a discussion was essentially an episode of overreaction theater.

Tuchel himself was more than willing to expand his thought process, which, of course, also didn’t help the situation. Too much trust in the public, Tommy Cool, just like Christopher Nolan with Principle.

But at the end of the day, the head coach and player must let go of that disturbance of strength that made a million voices scream in agony and get back to winning games. Whether Twitter will be able to handle Hudson-Odoi’s decision whether or not to start Tuesday against Atlético Madrid is one thing that will not play on Tuchel’s mind. He’s more concerned with what he sees of Hudson-Odoi as a starter versus Hudson-Odoi as a substitute.

“Tomorrow is already over and maybe he starts against Atletico if we need his qualities. But then he has to be trustworthy and reliable and this is the next step for him. He’s a bit in trouble when he comes off the bench, it was like that against Sheffield [United] and today.

“So it’s up to him to improve because we need him in some games from the bench, to hang on in a different way. So now it’s forgotten and he’s stepped up his efforts, learn from it, swallow it, and there is no problem.

It’s ironic that it was Hudson-Odoi with whom Tuchel made his first public Chelseaverse faux pas given the young winger has been a key feature of the new head coach’s game plans since day zero. The same certainly couldn’t be said of Frank Lampard, who apparently couldn’t quite bring himself to trust this Chelsea Academy product as much as most of the Youth Revolution ™.

Lampard may (also) have occasionally criticized Callum for similar issues with effort and attitude, but Tuchel has been very generous with the 20-year-old and reaped the rewards from those decisions as well. Chelsea’s attack lacked a point, but Hudson-Odoi has been one of the sharper Blues so far.

If we can respond positively to this cataclysmic event, we must expect it to continue.

“In a game where it’s hard to create chances, you have to rely on the counterpressing to maybe force mistakes, to get a second ball and have an easy chance. For this you need to be fully active and perfectly sharp. I didn’t feel that from Callum today.

“He missed opportunities to press back, lost a few easy balls. I had the feeling that he was never really in the game. You know I trust him a lot because he plays every game for us but today I was close to him and I don’t know, maybe -being that was unfair, but I didn’t have the feeling today that I normally get from him because he can be decisive. “

Tuchel had several highly publicized substitution dramas (of the most common genre) with Kylian Mbappé at PSG, while we remembered a certain José Mourinho having already performed this same stunt with Nemanja Matić in 2015 as well. Matić was of course not entirely satisfied with this, but would end up leaving Chelsea a few years later to reunite with Mourinho at Manchester United. Football may see this as a “humiliation” because football can be weird about some things, but in the end, it’s just … well, football. It’s not life or death, unless we want to.

Hudson-Odoi has spoken positively of Tuchel before, and vice versa. And obviously on the pitch, things have been good, if not great. This moment may prove to be an inflection point in this relationship, and perhaps Tuchel’s time in general at Chelsea, but whether that is in a positive or negative direction is entirely up to the managers involved.

“It was a tough decision but nothing that will stick between us or stay for long. Tomorrow will be forgotten and we will prepare for Atletico.

“Absolutely not [worried it will affect his confidence]. Everyone should understand that I make decisions to win matches and that it’s okay for him to make mistakes, have a bad game or miss, but we can’t run out of energy even 10% or 5%. It is not possible.

“I know what he can give, which is why I trust him a lot. It will not change. He knows exactly what I’m asking of him and when he doesn’t reach that level it might mean a tough decision like today. You don’t have to think in old-fashioned terms that it’s the worst thing that can happen, no.

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Football.London

Chelsea’s next six games will be against Atlético Madrid (twice), Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Leeds United. This race could certainly do something much worse than replacing a substitute after 30 minutes of a half second for a clearly explained reason (whether you agree with the reason or not).

We move forward.

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