Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel says he was happy with his team’s defensive performance in Saturday’s 1-0 win over West Ham United but highlighted one defender’s “brave” display, in particular.
Aside from Timo Werner’s brilliant first-half goal, the Blues were rather wasteful up front, considering the number of good chances they had.
But as has often happened since Tuchel arrived, their solid defence once again made the lack of ruthlessness in front of goal inconsequential.
In fact, Edouard Mendy did not have to make any spectacular save and faced just two shots on target throughout the game.
Tuchel made one change at the back which initially raised some eyebrows, but the result suggests that it paid off.
“We made this change today, to have Andreas [Christensen], Antonio [Rudiger], and Thiago [Silva] protect the goal and to have heights for the long balls,” he told Chelsea TV in his post-match interview.
“To have body and heights against Tomas Soucek who is very, very strong when he arrives from midfield or when he arrives for the long balls from the goalkeeper.
“So yeah, that worked out very, very well.
“I’m happy because Andreas played at his highest level after his injury; in [terms of] trust, confidence, and also in build-ups.
“[And he was] very, very brave against the ball.
“Azpi suffered on the side [smile], to play the whole side. [But I’m] very happy, it worked out very well.”
Chronicle view
As Tuchel said, Soucek who stands at 6ft3 tall (1.92m) is a big aerial threat.
On Saturday, however, he won just two out of nine aerial duels he had in the game.
In comparison, the three Chelsea centre-backs Christensen, Silva, and Rudiger won 13 out of their 17 aerial duels combined.
Azpilicueta also did very well, winning all of his three aerial duels.
However, it was also very evident that his age is catching up to him as he had a hard time running up and down the right flank.
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