Thomas Tuchel said he left out Hakim Ziyech out of the Chelsea squad against Burnley due to injury risks as he opted to stick with the 3-4-3 system.
The 47-year-old’s team selection on Sunday certainly raised some eyebrows.
Mason Mount’s inclusion after a brilliant second-half cameo against Wolves would please a lot of fans, although it comes at the expense of Ziyech.
Interestingly, Ziyech was not even in the squad, and Tuchel said the decision was made as a precaution.
“Hakim has been in a bit of overload since five weeks so he has a bit of a risk getting injured if he plays more than 30 minutes,” he told Chelsea’s official 5th stand app.
“For that we decided to [give him] a break now to go out of the risk zone. We decided this yesterday.”
Regarding the formation, Tuchel believes Chelsea can still improve in the final third as he made a couple of changes in his front three.
“We decided to stay in the same structure and be positive — we can do the little details better, play more vertically and a bit more aggressively,” he added.
“We have changed the front three so they have different characteristics, but it is not a choice we made because we were disappointed with anything from Wednesday.
“It’s just to give everybody time on the pitch.”
Chronicle view
On paper, Tuchel’s 3-4-3 seems to be an attacking version of Antonio Conte’s title-winning Chelsea side.
With the two wingbacks responsible for providing the width, the wide attacking players effectively play as two No.10s behind the striker.
The likes of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, and Mason Mount would enjoy playing behind a striker, but it would take time for Christian Pulisic and Ziyech to adapt to the more central roles.
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