Thomas Tuchel full of praise for assistant for tactical change vs Malmo involving Chelsea duo Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi
Speaking after the game (h/t The Metro), Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel credited his assistant for suggesting Callum Hudson-Odoi and Hakim Ziyech should change flanks during half-time against Malmo.
The Blues took one step closer to qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League on Tuesday night as they defeated Malmo 1-0, thanks to a second-half strike by Ziyech.
The intensity in the second half stepped up after a dire first-half performance. However, the reason why the West London outfit were probing the defence of the Swedish outfit so often after half-time was because Hudson Odoi and Ziyech changed flanks.
The Moroccan was initially on the right flank while the Englishman was on the left. However, they interchanged in the second half, and the result of it was a tap in for the former Ajax man, thanks to a beautiful first-time cross by the 20-year-old winger.
This tactical change, however, was not made by Tuchel. The German credited his assistant for this switch in his post-match press conference (h/t The Metro).
‘All the credit to my assistant Arno [Michels]. He had the idea at half-time. We liked it. We had the feeling when we enter into the space behind the back-five, we maybe lose some important seconds when Hakim has to switch the ball back on his left foot, and Callum has to switch back on his right foot, and the number eight was closing space.
‘We thought maybe we could save a second or a tenth of a second, and we had a breakthrough on the half-position. Callum could deliver precisely, it was a good ball in, and I’m happy.’
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Both wingers were heavily influential in the game, as was Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who ran the show on the night. However, a tiny cause of worry for Tuchel would be that the Blues only found the back of the net once despite taking over 20 shots in the game.
Regardless, Chelsea will take the victory and shall now gear up for their Premier League clash against Burnley on the weekend.
