Tuchel: Chelsea made mistakes vs Newcastle, Werner will score more

THOMAS Tuchel was not entirely happy with Chelsea’s performance on Monday night despite their 2-0 win over Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge.

The win, in which Olivier Giroud and Timo Werner scored, took Chelsea to fourth place in the Premier League above champions Liverpool, but the Blues manager wanted more from his team.

“I liked the first half,” he told reporters after the game. “We played with courage and had a lot of touches in the box and a lot of shots. We managed to keep them away from our box and did not allow chances or even half-chances so I liked that a lot.

“During the whole match, we lacked precision in the last decision and we lacked decision-making in the box. We can be more deadly, more precise and more decisive that we create even more chances of our half-chances.”

The German then went into more detail on how his side underperformed.

He explained: “In the second half, the first three or four minutes were more or less the picture for the whole half. We suddenly gave away two shots in the first two minutes, we lost duels, we had suddenly corners against us and I felt we had the feeling of something to lose.

“We played too many balls back when we could escape the pressure, we did not open up or keep the advantage to put the game into the opponent’s half. The counter-attacks in the second half were not precise or clinical enough to score a third goal and finish the game.”

Chelsea were 10th when Tuchel took over from Frank Lampard but the former Paris Saint-Germain manager is not getting carried away now they are in a Champions League spot.

“We will never stop pushing because there is no other way,” he offered. “We knew that we could be in the top four if we won today but I can only tell everyone that there is still a long way to go, there are a lot of teams very close. We have a lot of games to play, we have a lot of big teams to play, there are many points to win.

“Now, it’s important for me that we take two days off and we recover mentally and physically and then prepare 100 per cent for Southampton, because that will be the next challenge. At the moment this is our position, but what matters is our position at the end.

“When we started we were a lot of points behind Liverpool with many teams between us and fourth place. So it was clear that it was not only in our hands, that we needed also results on other pitches to close the gap. This was the situation when we started and from there on we spent not one minute thinking about the other pitches and the other teams.”

Werner, the goal-shy striker brought in for big money from RB Leipzig, has been more lively under his fellow German and he scored his first Premier League goal in 14 matches on Monday. His last league goal was against Sheffield United in November.

Tuchel believes the goal will give Werner confidence to score more.

“For the strikers the last per cent of confidence and belief come from goals, nothing else,” he noted. “But he worked hard for that. In the last game he was very decisive with the assist and winning the decisive penalty for us. Again today he has an assist, and the goal, and this is super important for him. I’m happy because he put in a lot of effort and hard work off the ball. I think it was a big relief but we saw it coming.”

Chelsea are fourth in the Premier League table with 42 points from 24 games while Newcastle United are 17th with 25 points.