‘Don’t think they reached their peak’: Tuchel says two Chelsea players underperformed against Manchester United

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Thomas Tuchel felt Chelsea duo Timo Werner and Kai Havertz were below their best against Manchester United yesterday.

As quoted by the 5^th Stand, Tuchel acknowledged that his fellow compatriots had a relatively quiet evening at Old Trafford.

Werner and Havertz both started in attack last night, surely sensing a great opportunity to add to their goals tally.

United had not kept a clean sheet since drawing 0-0 with Watford back in February.

The two German internationals meanwhile were on decent scoring runs before Thursday’s encounter.

Especially Werner, who had netted four times in the previous five matches.

However, both drew a blank in Manchester, despite carving out several opportunities.

Not the greatest game for the German pair

Havertz was denied twice in the first half by David De Gea, once from a header and another at close range.

Chelsea really should’ve gone ahead at the second attempt, but Ralf Rangnick’s saviour came to the rescue once again.

Tuchel reacted furiously to this particular miss, unsure how his team had not taken the lead.

Unfortunately for Havertz, he didn’t get too many more openings after that moment and came off with 20 minutes remaining, followed shortly after by Werner.

“They both had a lot of chances and I don’t think they reached their peak performance tonight,” admitted Tuchel.

“There is no need to point the finger at anyone though because as a team, we played very well and we had enough chances to get the win.

“But we were not clinical enough, that much is clear.”

Marcos almost makes Manchester misery

It was up to a defender to show the attackers how it should be done.

Marcos Alonso’s delicious volley on the hour finally made Chelsea’s pressure pay off.

But the Blues hardly had any time to celebrate before they were back level again.

Cristiano Ronaldo struck his 17^th of the season, and very first against Chelsea in the Premier League, just two minutes after Alonso’s effort.

Rangnick’s men hung on to what could be a precious point, despite Reece James hitting the post.

On the other hand, Tuchel will only view it as more dropped points, a theme that has run throughout the campaign.

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