Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel dismisses talk of Christian Pulisic rift
Tuchel claims he has ‘zero problem’ with the United States forward
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Thomas Tuchel insists there is “zero problem” between him and a “very positive” Christian Pulisic.
Pulisic’s father Mark posted, then deleted, a tweet on May 1 lamenting the USA forward’s “sad” situation at Stamford Bridge.
Pulisic senior insisted the 23-year-old loves Chelsea, his team-mates and London, with any mention of Blues boss Tuchel conspicuous by its absence.
Chelsea manager Tuchel insisted there is no issue with Pulisic however, with the USA star looking lively in a string of cameos despite battling for starts.
“I’m not concerned if a father does not say that a player loves a manager,” said Tuchel. “It’s a normal thing (for a player to be frustrated). But like every manager we have our reasons to choose a line-up and we have our reasons to go for players in the first XI.
“And you will never see on this kind of level of competition happy faces from players who are not selected.
“Between me and Christian exists zero problem. He had a fantastic training week so far.
“He is in some matches a huge impact from the bench, and for him for everybody else there’s absolutely nothing to do with any tweet or any reaction from agents or fathers or whatever.
“I didn’t even know about it because I didn’t want to get affected by it, in my judgement, because it has nothing to do with it.
“The players in the end are responsible to be in the team and stay in the team, “I would do my very best to make the right judgement.
“Am I always right? For sure not. Is it always fair? For sure not. But this is also what you sign up for in a club like Chelsea.
Between me and Christian exists zero problem
“And I haven’t experienced the same reaction from Christian lately, it was actually the opposite: he’s been very strong and very positive in the last weeks.”
Chelsea will bid to bounce back from last weekend’s frustrating 1-0 loss at Everton when they host Wolves in Saturday’s Premier League clash.
N’Golo Kante and Jorginho will miss out through minor issues, with Callum Hudson-Odoi still sidelined through back trouble.
Chelsea can stay on course for a third-placed finish with a win, with Tuchel demanding his players now get back to their best.
“We need another reaction; that’s where we are,” said Tuchel.
“We had a week to prepare which was nice, but not nice because we would prefer to play Champions League.
“It was nice to have the team to have influence in training, to set the focus on the things we want to improve.
“We want to meet our standards and we demand a lot from us.
“I think there are a lot of reasons why it is maybe normal to drop in intensity and in the level of effort but as we are an elite sports team, we compete on the very highest level of this sport.
“There is not much room for normal behaviour. We want elite behaviour. This includes me.
“We need to step up, show another reaction and that we can play better, have more impact and effort in the matches and start from there tomorrow.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments