Thomas Tuchel displeased with Callum Hudson-Odoi after Chelsea draw vs Southampton
According to Sky Sports, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has expressed his unhappiness over the attitude of Callum Hudson-Odoi in the Southampton game.
Chelsea came back from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw against the Saints on Saturday afternoon. The Blues dominated possession for large parts, but were unable to carve out any major openings in the first period.
This prompted Tuchel to take off Tammy Abraham at half-time and introduce Hudson-Odoi in his place. Having largely played as a wing-back in the new manager’s tenure, the Englishman was asked to do a job higher up the pitch.
However, Hudson-Odoi, despite showing a few nice moments, wasn’t able to make the desired impact, with his decision-making and end product not matching the level that the manager expected of him.
Tuchel’s frustrations were clearly visible on the touchline and in a bold move, the German whisked off Hudson-Odoi half an hour after having sent him on, with Hakim Ziyech replacing him.
Quizzed over his drastic move in the second period, Tuchel responded saying that he was not pleased with what he saw from the Englishman.
“I was not happy with his attitude, energy and counter-pressing. In a game where it was not easy to create chances, you need to rely on counter-pressing to force errors to get the second ball and get the easy chance.
“And for that, you need to be totally on and sharp for counter-pressing and I did not feel this with Callum today. He missed some opportunities for counter-pressing and lost some easy balls and I had the feeling he was never really in the game.”
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Tuchel insisted that the substitution will not affect the pair’s relationship and also claimed that it will not harm the Hudson-Odoi’s substitution. Nevertheless, it is never easy from a player’s perspective to go through something like this. Hopefully, the youngster bounces back strongly.