It looked like a brilliant idea, as if at the crucial moment he had put everything on one card out of a gut feeling.
On Wednesday evening, Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel switched to substitute goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga in the final of the UEFA Super Cup against FC Villarreal shortly before the end of extra time, although regular goalkeeper Édouard Mendy had shown a good game up until then.
The game went to penalties as expected, with Kepa blocked two shots and Chelsea won.
“That wasn't spontaneous,” said Tuchel afterwards. Kepa held more penalties in percentage terms than Mendy, so his substitution was logical: “The analysts and goalkeeping coaches showed me the data.” Tuchel, the technocrat - once again lived up to his reputation. In England, the reputation of the former coach of Mainz 05, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain also means that his decisions are mostly correct. Former national player Rio Ferdinand emphasized how difficult it was for Kepa in recent months after he had to give up his regular seat to Mendy, which is why Tuchel's move before the penalty shoot-out was quite risky: "Obviously he knew something we didn't know."
With Chelsea, Tuchel starts his first full season in England against Crystal Palace on Saturday, after he succeeded Frank Lampard in January and stabilized the unsettled team straight away.
In May they defeated Manchester City in the Champions League final.
Lukaku comes to Chelsea
Now he should make Chelsea a serious candidate for winning the championship again. “The exciting thing about Chelsea is that winning the Champions League was just the beginning for this team,” the Guardian wrote in a season preview: “They have plenty of room to improve and you can tell they're optimistic Look into the future. ”Before last season, Chelsea had spent almost 250 million euros on additions - including the Germans Kai Havertz and Timo Werner. So far this summer they have held back - until Thursday. The club then announced that striker Romelu Lukaku, who is rumored to have paid a transfer fee of £ 97.5m (€ 115m), is leaving Inter Milan for London.
Manchester City has been the dominant force in the Premier League for years, most recently they won the title three times - only interrupted by the triumph of Liverpool FC 2020. And when the new season starts this weekend, City will again be the measure of all things, especially since the club of the former Bayern coach Pep Guardiola has underpinned its claim to power by signing Jack Grealish on the transfer market. A hundred million pounds transfer fee (118 million euros) make Grealish the most expensive gateway in Premier League history. The 25-year-old attacking midfielder joins the champions from Aston Villa.
And the signing of international striker Harry Kane, the icon of Tottenham Hotspur, is still under discussion. Explosively, the clubs meet on Sunday. Club owner Sheikh Mansour from Abu Dhabi assumes winning the championship one way or another; what he desires more than that is victory in the Champions League, which City has so far been denied. In May they reached the finals of the top European competition for the first time, but lost to Chelsea.
Liverpool FC will also want to attack the top again after a difficult season. Injuries to important players hit Jürgen Klopp's team hard, especially the absence of defensive boss Virgil van Dijk, who will probably not be fully resilient again at the beginning of the new season on Saturday against newly promoted Norwich City due to a torn cruciate ligament. In the meantime, Liverpool slipped to eighth place in the table, but balanced themselves towards the end of the season through a series of ten games without a loss to third place in the table - and thus into the financially important Champions League.
Except for the commitment of the young central defender Ibrahima Konaté from RB Leipzig for 40 million euros, Liverpool has so far been quiet on the transfer market. Since Georginio Wijnaldum, a regular player, has left the club, the fans hope that Klopp will announce further additions before the window for player changes closes on August 31.
In contrast, last year’s second man, Manchester United, has already signed his most important transfers: right-winger Jadon Sancho has come from Borussia Dortmund for 85 million euros; United have agreed with Real Madrid on a change in defender Raphaël Varane. Coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær expects one of the strongest Premier League seasons ever: “The champion will be whoever stands before last year's champions.” His team will host Leeds United on Saturday, a classic of English football, which like everyone else Games are played in front of full stands in the stadium.
Thomas Tuchel was happy about other kinds of additions: In the summer, his family moved from Paris to London after he extended his contract to 2024 after winning the Champions League. Chelsea are not considered an easy work environment, especially not for coaches, but Tuchel seems to be sure of his cause. After all, he's not a gut decision type.