Thomas Tuchel bids to crank up Chelsea's intensity in training

Thomas Tuchel reveals he is trying to help out-of-sorts Chelsea rediscover their competitiveness with mini tournaments in training… as he admits they have lost their edge after their Champions League elimination

• Thomas Tuchel has held mini tournaments and competitive games in training
• Tuchel is trying to revitalise his out-of-form Chelsea players ahead of the run-in
• They have not yet guaranteed third place and have just one win in four games 
• Tuchel admitted his side have lost their edge since their Champions League exit

Thomas Tuchel has held mini tournaments and competitive games in training to try and revitalise his out-of-form Chelsea players ahead of the run-in.

The Blues have not yet guaranteed third place and have just one win in four games after their 1-0 defeat by Everton last weekend.

Tuchel admitted his side have lost their edge since their elimination from the Champions League and he wants to see a more competitive performance against Wolves.

Manager Thomas Tuchel has held mini tournaments and competitive games in training

‘Sometimes it [losing the edge] does drive you crazy as a manager. For me personally I can just tell you that it always starts with me. So I ask myself did I lose my five per cent, two percent?

‘Where could I have done, where was my influence? You analyse the datas and you see also on a physical level that we drop intensity, we drop kilometres, we drop, actually, effort.

‘So you ask yourself should I have been aware of it before? Should I have changed more positions, fresher legs? Was it the moment? Yes, no? Where did it come from? You will never be fully sure. But what you can do is, you cannot get stuck in the past.

The German manager is trying to revitalise his out-of-form Chelsea players ahead of the run-in

Tuchel’s side have not yet guaranteed third place and have just one win in four games

‘You need to come up with solutions. So the solution is, in my experience, most of the time, on the training pitch. You can talk about it and hold speeches and show videos and whatever but in the end it’s the best thing to react on the training pitch.

‘We had three consecutive training sessions. It was just like three times do whatever you want and that gave us the chance to increase intensity.

‘We played little tournaments, we played to win. We wanted to see who wins. They were small sided games and we played for the result, like not only tactical games, not only possession games. So that was a light switch. It was very good training.’

Chelsea face Leeds next Wednesday before their FA Cup final with Liverpool. When asked whether his players are playing for their places at Wembley, Tuchel said: ‘Yes, but it is always like this. But we should not confuse it that we play for Wembley.

‘We play tomorrow for tomorrow. This is the mentality.’

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