Tuchel absolutely rips into PL as new fitness concerns emerge

“We have another injured player. We play against a team with no international duty. At some stage it’ll catch us," Thomas Tuchel told Sky Sports after the Aston Villa win.

"We let Callum Hudson-Odoi play 90 minutes because we needed to change other players. Who decided that? They make us play. We play two more cup games. We play against teams with games postponed. This cannot be the right way.

"Not enough changes for us. Five subs was invented because of coronavirus. Europe has a winter break but we play through and put it on the players' shoulders. They make us play all the time even if we have Covid. We have new injuries and it won’t stop. People at the green table, in offices make these decisions.

"It’s not fair today. He [Romelu Lukaku] had a very good performance. He’s not ready for that even if he wants it. We’ve all been in bed for 10 days with flu. He was a game-changer today. I’m super impressed with the guys but I’m super concerned.

"We will have the same discussion on Wednesday again. Nobody asked us. If we say what we want to change it’s not possible.

"We are struggling, we are pressing our players. I have maximum respect for what the players did today.

"We do changes because of injuries. We don’t change for tactical reasons any more. We thought Hudson-Odoi can share minutes with Lukaku but Kante is injured, Silva is injured. We have three changes. It backfired on us. Hudson-Odoi was outstanding today, one of his very best performances. We were in doubt he can play one half but he played 90 minutes."

Chelsea are back in action on Wednesday when they take on Brighton.

Judging by Tuchel's words, he'll have to come up with new solutions to replace unfit players with slightly less unfit players for that game.

Source: Sky Sports