‘Liked it’: Tuchel shares what his assistant manager told him at half-time last night, caused big change

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Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has detailed a key conversation that took place with his assistant during the win against Malmo last night.

The Blues recorded a 1-0 away victory in the Champions League group stages on Tuesday to boost their hopes of qualifying for the knockouts.

However, they found it difficult to get past an organised defence put out by Swedish club Malmo.

Thankfully, Chelsea’s winner came 10 minutes into the second half when Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cross from the right was tucked in by Hakim Ziyech at the far left post. It was noticeable, though, that the two wingers switched flanks at half time which lead to the winning goal.

Rio Ferdinand raved about Hudson-Odoi after his impact against Malmo.

Tuchel revealed in his post-match press conference that assistant manager Arno Michels deserves special praise, as he was behind the important decision to switch Hudson-Odoi’s and Ziyech’s positions at the interval. His influence helped cause the big change to win the game.

“All the credit to my assistant Arno [Michels]. He had the idea at half-time. We liked it,” Tuchel said.

“We had the feeling when we enter into the space behind the back five we maybe lose some important seconds when Hakim has to switch the ball back on his left foot, and Callum has to switch back on his right foot, and the number eight was closing space.

“We thought maybe we could save a second or a tenth of a second, and we had a breakthrough on the half-position. Callum could deliver precisely, it was a good ball in, and I’m happy.”

Everything at Chelsea turns to gold right now

Chelsea once again found a way to win this week and it’s great to hear Tuchel put his 54-year-old assistant in the limelight.

Michels, who’s previously worked as Tuchel’s assistant at Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, is now lending a key hand as part of the staff at Stamford Bridge.

The in-game decision to swap Hudson-Odoi and Ziyech had a pay off that earned three vital points. His conversation from the sidelines was as good as the assist from Hudson-Odoi himself.

There will be a dip at some stage. However, every decision made right now by Chelsea’s coaching staff is spot on.

Squad singing off some hymn sheet

A large part of Chelsea’s success in 2021 is the fact that everyone in the squad is pulling in the same direction.

Tuchel has done a brilliant job keeping his group together, something which must be extremely difficult when you’re regularly leaving out big names and top players.

The impact he’s had in under a year is phenomenal.

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