Pressure on: Chelsea suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat at Elland Road
(Picture: Getty Images)Thomas Tuchel denies Chelsea have a poor mentality, were outfought or were underprepared despite their shock 3-0 away loss at Leeds.
The Blues were well beaten by Jesse Marsch’s side at Elland Road on Sunday afternoon after goals by Brendan Aaronson, Rodrigo and Jack Harrison.
Still, Tuchel dismissed any conclusions could be drawn from the result, insisting they only lost because of individual mistakes.
“I think you, all of you [in the media], make the mistake and I feel it that they run 11km more and we lose 3-0,” Tuchel said after the match.
“It is a set piece and a huge mistake and only one team should have led 1-0 and that was us. So everybody knows that they run more, it is nothing to do with mentality. I don’t think it is the mentality that Edou doesn’t take the right decision.
“I think it is the mentality in set pieces at the moment. But not the big mentality as a headline, please. The mentality in set-pieces is not good enough. Mentality comes down to discipline and doing what we should do and what makes us strong in the first 15-20 minutes.
“It was enough to kill the game and bring it into a direction where it was last season. If they scored the opening chance, did what they did and a win is possible.
“Maybe you don’t believe me and I don’t see a connection that we have a huge mentality problem and that we are not ready for what’s coming.”
The loss comes despite Chelsea’s aggressive transfer market spending where they’ve added over £170million worth of talent to their squad which finished third in the Premier League last season.
There will be calls for more signings, particularly in midfield, where both the starters of Conor Gallagher and Jorginho were substituted.
However, Tuchel denies the need for new players in this area.
“Another midfielder? We have Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, we have Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Conor Gallagher, Mateo Kovacic.”
Adding about Kante and Kovacic: “They’re injured, yes, it’s a problem. But they will come back. They’ve not disappeared.”
Chelsea continue to try to add new players with talks ongoing around the signings of Barcelona striker Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Everton winger Anthony Gordon and Leicester City defender Wesley Fofana.
Fofana was left out by Leicester this weekend and his side face Chelsea next in the Premier League.
Even after seeing Kalidou Koulibaly was sent off, Tuchel insists he isn’t desperate to put extra pressure on his club’s owners to complete a move for a new defender.
“We need to wait,” he concluded. “The transfer period is still open. It gets later and later and we need to focus on what we have and what we can do. We can obviously play at a high level but we lost track when there was no need. We were not forced to lose track. Everything was going well.
“We can win with this team in Leeds, everything was going well and we had goalscoring opportunities. It went the other way and I think it was more our fault than anyone else’s credit.”
