Tuchel hints at travel arrangements playing a part in Chelsea’s embarrassment vs Leeds

Tuchel blamed the travel arrangements for Chelsea’s humiliating defeat to Leeds United

Speaking to BBC Sport (h/t Metro), speaking after his side’s horrendous 3-0 defeat at the hands of Leeds United, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel quite weirdly blamed the travel arrangements leading up to the game as being one of the contributing factors to his team’s poor performance.

Tuchel was upbeat about his team despite the embarrassment at Elland Road but talked about a cancelled flight which meant the coaching staff had to take the bus to travel from London to Leeds. The players did fly though, which makes this claim all the more bizarre.

Two of the three goals conceded were due to bad mistakes. The first one came after goalkeeper Edouard Mendy took too much time on the ball and allowed Brendan Aaronson to poach in and score.

The second was Reece James letting Rodrigo run in front of him and head the ball in following a wide free-kick. None of these mistakes could have happened just because the coaching staff had to take the bus, right?

Speaking about that bizarre incident, here’s Tuchel:

“Everything that can go wrong, did go wrong. It started yesterday. We had no plane to arrive so we came on the bus. The players could fly but for the coaching staff it was a long ride on the bus. It continued today.”

With just four points from three league games, the pressure is on Tuchel and the team to deliver. If we take into account the number of points needed to even challenge for a Premier League these days, dropping points early does not help at all.

Rather than blaming travel arrangements, the manager needs to sort out the issues in the team, lessen the count of individual errors and more.

Making them hard to beat would be a good starting point because Leeds had it very easy to score and create chances. Other than that, finishing off good attacking moves by putting the ball in the back of the net would also be nice.

More Chelsea News:

• West Ham United agree fee to sign Chelsea defender Emerson Palmieri
• Thomas Tuchel hints at Chelsea opting against signing a new midfielder this summer
• Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel was not overly critical of Edouard Mendy’s mistake against Leeds United

Up next is a home game against struggling Leicester City for the Blues. The Foxes will come into the game after two consecutive defeats with the manager under pressure. It could be a perfect opportunity for Tuchel and his men to get things right then.