Paris (AFP)
Stiff with its leaders, flexible with its stars, Thomas Tuchel rebounds a month after his dry ousting from Paris SG in Chelsea, where he will rub shoulders with Roman Abramovich and find Thiago Silva.
By rubbing his method in the English championship, "TT" will also meet Jürgen Klopp, to whom he is often compared ...
After taking over from the current Liverpool coach on the benches of Mainz (from 2009 to 2014, Klopp having left in 2008) then at Borussia Dortmund (from 2015 to 2017), Tuchel, 47, will meet him in the Premier League.
Their shock is scheduled for March 20 at Anfield.
The former PSG coach, passionate about tactics, video and blackboard, will have had a little time to put his paw on the game of "Blues".
At Stamford Bridge, he arrives in a solid locker room but without a world star of the caliber of Neymar or Mbappé.
And the best known of them is already in his pocket: Thiago Silva, who was his beloved captain at PSG.
Tuchel even opposed the departure of the Brazilian this summer.
In vain.
A conflict, an opposition with its leaders?
It is a little the common thread of the career of the Swabian coach, native of Krumbach.
Having left a year before the end of his contract at Mainz, he also left Borussia angry.
- "Sad or angry" -
Tuchel blamed its leaders for their lack of support after the attack on the players' bus before the Champions League quarter-final against Monaco (the match had been postponed to the next day, against the advice of a traumatized locker room).
He was also unhappy with the transfer policy.
At PSG, it is his freedom of tone to evoke his disagreement on the transfer window, already, and his frontal opposition to Leonardo, the sports director, which cost him his place.
If he won his "war" with his first Parisian sports director, Antero Henrique, who landed in June 2019, he lost the one with Leonardo, who got his head just before Christmas after a great victory against Strasbourg (4-0 ).
Despite two championship titles and the best result of PSG in C1 - the final lost in August against Bayern Munich (1-0) - Tuchel paid his frankness and his refusal of concessions, like the episode Danilo Pereira (midfielder replaced in defense) and Marquinhos (defender placed in the middle).
The click apparently occurred during an interview on German television, where Tuchel regretted a certain lack of recognition.
His PSG was "one game away from winning the Champions League, he said. And we never had the feeling that we had convinced people and that they recognized our performance. Sometimes that makes you a little sad or angry."
- "We're fine with him" -
The comparison with the charismatic Klopp also highlights what Tuchel lacks: the love of the supporters.
"Klopp wants to be an idol. Tuchel, he is not interested in marketing, in his image. He is interested in his work, he wants to be judged for his work and only that", decrypts Daniel Meuren, author of a biography on Chelsea's newest technician.
His modest career as a defender was quickly interrupted by injuries.
He learned his trade with the power of the wrist, starting from the Stuttgart youth teams.
In France, he did not hide his annoyance or even his contempt for certain questions from journalists.
One day he asked one of them if he had the "c ..." to question the players on their state of form.
But his players seemed to be behind him.
At PSG, "he managed to create a very solid group. He is a young coach, he has ideas, a very good character with us. We're good with him," summarized midfielder Marco Verratti.
"Managing around thirty players, with a lot of important players, is difficult. He managed to create a good relationship with everyone," assured the Italian.
He will be able to get back to work after, finally, a very short period of unemployment.
After his ouster from Borussia Dortmund, he spent a year without a bench in 2017-2018.
It had already been announced at Chelsea, among others.
Tuchel had already taken a first sabbatical year (2014-2015) after his explosion in Mainz.
This time, no room to tread.
© 2021 AFP