Stamford Bridge chief Thomas Tuchel reckons Premier League and Champions League games are coming too thick and fast to allow his players to enjoy a festive tipple
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Thomas Tuchel reckons the hectic December schedule will leave no time for his players to toast their impressive first half of the season with a Christmas tipple.
And the Chelsea boss hopes that, when they do eventually get some time off, his high-flying stars will spend it on their sofas rather than in a fancy London club.
Tuchel said: “Did you look at our schedule? There’s no chance. I know they will not go out when we have games every three days, it’s impossible.
“We will look into the schedule and try to give them days off as often as possible because it’s so rare.
“We just checked the whole schedule in December and finalised it on Friday — we will train on the 24th, 25th, it’s like this because we have an away game on the 26th.
“On January 2 we play Liverpool, so I know for sure that nobody will party hard.
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“We have a game against Leeds on the December 11 and the Everton game on the following Thursday, so if we have the possibility to give one or two days off after the Leeds game we will do it because it’s important we take rests and very important to de-connect and recharge the batteries.
“But I would prefer they stay on the couch and don’t go out.”
Chelsea haven’t been beaten since losing back-to-back games to Manchester City and Juventus at the end of September — a run that has moved them to the top of the Premier League and their Champions League group.
Tuchel acknowledged a team meeting after the Juve game played its part in their run but insists there have been several factors for it.
He added: “We had a very short meeting right after the match in the dressing-room and then it was the Southampton game and we changed the approach a bit towards the team, a bit in training, a bit in our style of playing.
“It’s not about being super-angry or blaming somebody but it was the moment to turn every stone and this is what we did for the next days in the coaching office.
“To find the mix between being honest, being critical but also being supportive and show a way out of this in which we believe and which suits us.
“And that, obviously with the help of the team, with the openness of the team and the mentality, we did it.
“This is what defeats are also for. We hate to lose but sometimes it happens and we clearly were not on our best level.
“We lacked a certain sharpness, we looked not very confident on this particular day against Juventus, and we were not happy with the performance and the result.
“It was a kind of a moment to shake things up but not in a crazy way, in an honest way … and the players did excellently.”
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