Thomas Tuchel demanded “better” from his Chelsea side after a “sloppy” performance in their Carabao Cup victory over Tottenham.
The Blues were 1-0 victors (3-0 on aggregate) in the second leg of the semi-final, though they did allow their opponents back into the game after a dominant first-half performance. Spurs had two penalties and one goal overturned by VAR.
So although they’ve reached the final, Tuchel wants to see improvement come the Wembley showdown next month.
He told Sky Sports: “It was good, we controlled the match, we had big chances. We were in the lead but we then had the feeling we played with fire.
“We allowed chances from easy and sloppy mistakes and gave almost a penalty away but for absolutely no reason.
“A bit over confident. We started very well in the second half and the same happened like for the last 20, 25 minutes.
“A bit of a mixture of a lack of focus, over-confidence, I don’t know. And suddenly like we need luck to not have another penalty, another VAR decision with a little offside.
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“No, we can play much better, we need to play much better if we want to really deserve results like. Over long phases of the match we did play well but need to do better.”
When asked if he was unhappy, Tuchel replied: “Yes.”
“We need to play much better if we really want to deserve these results.”
Thomas Tuchel was happy to see his #CFC side reach the Carabao Cup final but admits he was unhappy with their performance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. pic.twitter.com/yRaudnGo2M
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) January 12, 2022
He continued: “We have to meet the standards, that’s why we work for Chelsea and we play for Chelsea and nothing else matters.
“It’s about our standards and it’s not about somehow getting a result. We can do much better, we can close spaces much better, we can be better at defending individually, we can control the match better, do less mistakes.
“In any part of the match we can do better and we have to do better.”
Rudiger echoes Tuchel observation
Antonio Rudiger was awarded Man of the Match after he netted the only goal of the game with his header from a corner.
On the finish, he said: “I knew it my head. I was hoping it would go in, so it was good. I’m working on getting into better positions.
“Last time we played here, I scored, so it is good to help the team and it was the most important thing to lead by example.”
Rudiger continued: “In the home leg, we were in total control. They came back in the second half, like today, and they were more dangerous today because of our lack of focus.
“I am enjoying this chapter. I think it is the best time of my career.”
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