Thomas Tuchel slams Chelsea display and refuses to rate Aubameyang's debut

Thomas Tuchel has criticised Chelsea’s performance in his side’s shock 1-0 defeat away to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League on Tuesday night, while he would not be drawn on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s debut display.

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The Blues dominated possession in Croatia but carved out few clear-cut chances and were undone on the break when Mislav Orsic ran in behind Chelsea’s high defensive line early in the match before dinking the ball past Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Tuchel’s side have now failed to keep a clean sheet since the opening day of the Premier League season against Everton, while defeat in Zagreb is their third consecutive away loss – the first time that has happened under the German coach.

Chelsea have also been beaten by Leeds and Southampton this season and given uninspiring performances in their three wins, with Tuchel once again unhappy with what he saw from his players.

Asked about his side’s display after the game, Tuchel told BT Sport: ‘Well it’s an underperformance from us.

‘It’s a bit the same story like always, we have an OK start, we don’t finish our half chances, we don’t feel it when the game is already there to put to bed in the first 15-20 minutes and then we concede one counter-attack which is far too easy and from there we struggle and lose the next match.’

He echoed that in his post-match press conference, saying: ‘I’m angry with myself, I’m angry with our performance. This was a huge underperformance from all of us.

‘It’s not precise enough, it’s not clinical enough, it’s not aggressive enough on the ball, it’s not determined enough, it’s not enough individually, it’s not enough as a team and that’s why we lost this game today.’

Asked what his main frustration was with the performance, Tuchel continued: ‘Too much to analyse. I’m a part of it and we are clearly not where we need to be and where we can be. So it’s on me, it’s on us, we need to find solutions.’

Probed on what is missing from his Chelsea side at the moment, he replied bluntly: ‘At the moment everything is missing.’

When it was put to him that it looked as though his players shrunk after conceding, Tuchel did not disagree: ‘If it seems like this, it’s hard to argue against it. You can analyse it like this, of course. I need to find a solution for the next match of course.

‘We made some changes [for the second half], we encouraged them, we told them to play with more emotion, to play tougher, to step up but it’s obviously hard at the moment for us.

‘It’s not enough. It’s nothing to do with worrying, it’s the reality.’

Aubameyang – wearing a face mask due to a broken jaw he sustained when his home was broken into – made his debut for Chelsea against Zagreb and had several half chances to score, also putting the ball in the back of the net only for the linesman’s flag to be raised.

Despite showing some promising signs, Tuchel was in no mood to discuss the forward, saying of his new addition’s display: ‘I will not talk about individuals today. We play as a team, we lose as a team. That’s what it is.’

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