Former Chelsea striker’s scathing assessment of Thomas Tuchel’s debut

Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea debut has not gone down well with former Blue Tony Cascarino who said he "hated every minute" of their stalemate with Wolves.

The west London outfit were held to a goalless draw in their first match under the German.

Tuchel was swiftly employed to take over from Frank Lampard, who was sacked earlier this week.

He was in the dugout shortly after being appointed and immediately asserted his influence by dropping Mason Mount, who had been a favourite under Lampard.

Chelsea dominated possession and made more passes than any team this season at Stamford Bridge.

But Cascarino felt they weren't productive enough when they had the ball and took issue with Tuchel's selection comments.

“I was surprised by his comments even before the game started,” the former Chelsea star told  talkSPORT . “He said it was probably one of the most difficult selections I’ve ever had to make.

“I was thinking, ‘have you not watched a certain amount of videos before you coach your first game?’

“Watch their last ten games and you might have got a good idea what their best team is! I found it a very strange comment.

“And the performance? I hated every minute of it!

“Especially the first half. I could have gone and put the kettle on and made a cup of tea when Chelsea started to move.

“I probably could have got to my tea and started drinking it by the time they got to the 18-yard box.”

Tuchel's last job saw him take PSG to within 90 minutes of Champions League glory while he added plenty of silverware domestically.

Prior to that he was in charge of Borussia Dortmund and Cascarino believes an obsession with keeping the ball does exist in mainland Europe where Tuchel has previously worked.

He added: “I’ve watched a lot of Dutch football and one of my biggest criticisms of it is that everybody plays the same way – possession-based with no purpose.

“You’ve got a similar scenario with France in the past ten years where teams will play this way; dominating the ball, never want to lose possession, but never really scared you.

“I hated what I saw in the first-half because, to me, possession-based football in the Premier League does pose different problems for you when you adopt that style."

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