EPL

Tuchel can quietly define an era at Chelsea - Ballack

By Sports Desk February 05, 2021

Thomas Tuchel will not prove difficult for the hierarchy at Chelsea to deal with and could define an era at Stamford Bridge, according to Michael Ballack.

Chelsea appointed Tuchel in January after dismissing Frank Lampard following a run of two wins in eight Premier League matches.

The 47-year-old German had been sacked by Paris Saint-Germain in December following a public falling out with sporting director Leonardo, and before that he left Borussia Dortmund following a breakdown in relations with club CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.

However, former Chelsea midfielder Ballack does not anticipate a repeat of the same issues in west London for Tuchel, who has won twice and drawn once in his first three games in charge.

Ballack told Stats Perform News: "I believe that the people at Chelsea intensely thought about who could succeed Frank. He was a younger and less experienced coach. Now there is Tuchel who isn't really much older but someone who had a lot more experience managing big clubs. He already has proven what he can do.

"Personally, I wouldn't say that he is hard to handle. I believe that Thomas Tuchel has precise ideas of how he wants to play and he communicates that.

"He has shown at PSG that he can work with tough characters. Some people might not have believed it at first. He reached the Champions League final and so forth. He has proven that he can reach the target at various levels.

"Chelsea is a completely new environment. I don't think that he will get into a conflict with his superiors, as he can work fairly quiet. I know that from personal experience.

"Of course, the requirements are now a lot higher. As Frank had to find out. As long as he can win games, he can get himself some space. Maybe he'll become the manager to implement his ideas in the long run, to maybe define an era at Chelsea."


Tuchel is the 12th permanent Chelsea boss since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003 and Ballack thinks the burden of expectation weighs heavily on whoever is in the dugout, with a spend of over £200million on reinforcements for this season playing a significant part.

"Chelsea have to be criticised that they aren't famous for their continuity regarding their managers. This is also due to the immense pressure from the club to have success, that is weighing down on everyone. Especially the coach," said Ballack.

"With that budget and the investments that are made in form of player transfers, there is automatically a form of pressure.

"Frank suffered from that because he slipped out of these positions [the top four] temporarily. He was therefore directly under pressure and in return lost his job.

"After those transfers in the summer Chelsea were under pressure. Frank had to feel that. I believe that Frank is enough of a professional to know what he can expect when signing at his club, in which he was valued highly."

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