Tuchel to Chelsea: What supporters can expect from Lampard's replacement
Following the departure of Frank Lampard as Chelsea head coach on Monday, attention turned to who would succeed the former midfielder. Lampard leaves Stamford Bridge with the Blues mired in ninth spot, 11 points off the top and five off the top four. The minimum requirement for the ex-Chelsea head coach would have been to finish the Champions League places and while he achieved that last season, a run of one win in five matches leaves the west London side mired in mid-table.
Chelsea concluded their statement on Lampard's dismissal with: "The Club will be making no further comment until such time as a new Head Coach is appointed." However, at the time of writing, it's Thomas Tuchel who is the front runner to succeed Lampard. The 47-year-old left PSG last month, despite leading the French side to back-to-back Ligue 1 titles during his tenure and the Champions League final back in August.
While he departed the club with the best Ligue 1 win percentage (75.6%) in history, Tuchel's failure to deliver the Champions League meant he was living on borrowed time at the Parc des Princes, even if losing to an imperious Bayern Munich side was no damning indictment of his managerial qualities.
Rather it was off the pitch that ultimately cost Tuchel his job in Paris. The German endured a fractured relationship with the club's hierarchy and once said he felt "more like a politician" in sport than a coach. He'll get on fabulously with the Chelsea board then!
🗳️ Is Thomas Tuchel the right man to replace Frank Lampard at Stamford Bridge?
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) January 25, 2021
It's not just the hierarchy he has fallen out with, but players too, having endured a testing relationship with Borussia Dortmund stalwarts Roman Weidenfeller, Neven Subotic and Jakub Blaszczykowski. Yet again he left the Bundesliga side with a solid win percentage of 63%.
Tuchel's work on the field is what makes him such an appealing target for Chelsea, that and the fact he is out of work, which means the Blues won't have to pay compensation to lure him to the capital. The German's achievements, including seven major domestic successes across his time in Germany and France, is an added bonus for a team that craves trophies.
If, or rather when, Tuchel takes over at Chelsea, then the first port of call is likely to be to improve a defence that should be tighter than it is. Only Manchester United (25) have conceded more goals than Chelsea (23) of teams in the top half of the Premier League this season, the difference being that United currently sit top of England's top tier.
During Lampard's time in charge of Chelsea, the Blues shipped an average of 1.35 goals per league game, a figure not good enough for a team harbouring title aspirations. Tuchel, while at the helm of Dortmund and PSG, saw his side ship an average of 0.98 goals per game, that record dropping to 0.74 during his time with the latter. He'll link up with a defender he knows well in Thiago Silva, a player whose arrival had a momentary boost in Chelsea's leaky backline, and has been a stalwart under Tuchel in the past.
In terms of style of play, Tuchel's routinely favoured a 4-3-3 system with inverted wingers. During his time with PSG, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar would often flank Edinson Cavani and look to cut inside to wreak havoc in the final third. The space that was opened up would present the full-backs the opportunity to stretch opponents, something that would benefit English pair Reece James and Ben Chilwell at Chelsea.
A solitary holding midfielder is also vital, a role that Lampard restored Kante to this season to good effect and, when fit, the Frenchman will likely start in the middle of the midfield, thus allowing the likes of Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount, the latter a rare success story under Lampard in 2020/21, to push on and support the attack.
Then there is the work off the ball that is of vital importance. Tuchel supports a similar mantra to compatriot Jurgen Klopp, which means the team has to work hard out of possession to win the ball back higher up the pitch. In that regard, PSG bettered Chelsea this season having won possession in the attacking third 86 times in Ligue 1 under Tuchel this term at a rate of 5.4 times per game.
That is a significant increase on Chelsea, who have done so 71 times in the Premier League at a rate of 3.7 times per game. One of the key reasons Tuchel was likely to have been first choice as Lampard's replacement, though, is the club's hopes of bringing out the best in summer arrivals Timo Werner and Kai Havertz. The German pair joined from RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen, respectively, at a cost of just shy of £120m. Under Lampard, neither player impressed.
Havertz has returned a WhoScored rating of just 6.50 in the Premier League this season, that one of the worst of all Chelsea players. Werner, meanwhile, has gone on a run of just one goal in his last 16 appearances and the hope now is that a German speaking coach will help both attackers settle and subsequently thrive in England.
Yet an issue with Tuchel's favoured use of a 4-3-3 is that Chelsea would be back in square one in trying to crowbar both Havertz and Werner into a system that doesn't play to their strengths. The former is better used in a more advanced midfield role while the latter works best with a striker partner.
That said, injuries have previously forced Tuchel into using a 4-2-2-2 system with PSG, where Neymar, Mbappe, Angel Di Maria and Mauro Icardi all started in an attack dubbed PSG's Magic Square. A similar setup may work best for Chelsea, and in particular Havertz and Werner, without Tuchel moving away from his favoured 4-3-3 system. A 4-2-2-2 is essentially a variant of a 4-3-3, with the left and right winger pulled inside and one of the three central midfielders pushed forward.
It could well be that fans see a 4-2-2-2 with Havertz and Mount behind Werner and one of Tammy Abraham or Olivier Giroud. This would play to the strengths of both German attackers and allow Chelsea to finally reap the rewards of their investments. While a setup like this would see the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic, a player Tuchel knows well, forced to look from the outside in, it would afford Tuchel options to switch between two systems he has used in the past and with the personnel at his disposal to make both setups work where required.
Provided he can remain in the good books with the board, Tuchel may prove a solid appointment in the current circumstances and one that would allow the high profile summer arrivals to at long last flourish. Chelsea would be acquiring a well-travelled head coach who has earned silverware in his previous positions, which would allow him to immediately command the respect of the players and help the west London side enjoy a second half of the season flourish in their best efforts to finish as close to the top as possible.
