Chelsea star Mason Mount launched a damning verdict on his side's performance versus Dinamo Zagreb and declared that the Blues must up their standards. The 23-year-old could not hide his disappointment as he reflected on how the team could not capitalise on a promising start.
Chelsea created chances before Mislav Orsic outpaced Wesley Fofana and sent the ball past Kepa but lost their way in the opening half. Thomas Tuchel set in motion a number of changes during the second. Formations were altered, and all five substitutes were used in the second 45 minutes. The Blues applied more pressure as the game went on, but it never truly felt like Chelsea had the conviction to score. An increasingly familiar feeling.
The frustration was evident across Chelsea's faces come the full-time whistle, with the group wasting little time in heading back to the changing rooms, heads bowed. Mount was unhappy with the manner in which the Blues conceded and the pressure it adds but had some demands for every sing player in the squad.
READ MORE: What Trevoh Chalobah and Edouard Mendy did to Wesley Fofana in Chelsea's defeat to Dinamo Zagreb
Mount told BT Sport: "We have to be brutally honest with ourselves, it's not good enough. It's the first game of the Champions League. We need to make a good start. Obviously, we started the game well, but we let it slip away, and that's happened over the last couple of games. It's something we need to look at."
"It's disappointing, it really is disappointing. We had opportunities in the first 20 minutes, we were creating, we had a lot of domination with the ball, camped in their half, it's going to be difficult to break them down at first, but if we kept going, I feel the goal would come and lack of concentration, too easy to get the goal away, we left ourself open, and they make it 1-0. In any game we play, it's very, very difficult, the level we're playing at, to get back into a game when you're 1-0 down, especially in the Champions League, away from home. We need to deal with that."
"At the beginning of the game, we start well, and if we get that first goal, the game is totally different. I feel like we dominate. We're just not getting it and maybe switching off a bit too much at the back. As I said at the beginning, it's not good enough. We're Chelsea, we need to up our standards. Every single player needs to look at themself, and we'll do that, and we need to come back in the next game with that fire and that desire that we've shown over the last few years to win games."
"If you're going through a difficult period, its natural confidence isn't at its highest, but what we do know is that we need to keep working hard. Work hard, get through it as a team, and that's all we can focus on."
Chelsea boss Tuchel had a similar assessment, having only a week ago called on his players to show more toughness in their performance. The German coach thought his side had made progress against West Ham, however, and was at a loss to explain the outing in the Croatian capital.
He said: "It was the story of the last few games - we start okay for 15-20 minutes but then lacked determination, precision and maybe even lacked the smell of blood.
"We had an amount of deliveries, and an amount of spaces and an amount of ball wins that should be by far enough to have far more attempts, but we did not. We conceded a goal with two players in a counter-attack, it's never happened before. I don't understand why it happened today.
"It's clearly my job to analyse it, so this is my analysing from the sideline, and it will continue. We need to be much better. We are not finished, we are not happy with our results, we are not happy with the way we play in general, but I thought we were on a good way. I'm a bit surprised by this performance today."
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