Thomas Tuchel names two reasons for Chelsea loss to Southampton in stinging assessment | Football | Sport

Thomas Tuchel criticised Chelsea’s mentality and consistency after his team fell to a 2-1 defeat against Southampton. The Blues boss believes his team are just too easy to beat after they conceded two sloppy goals to the south-coast side to fall to their second Premier League defeat this season. 

Chelsea were poor in the fixture at the St Mary’s Stadium and deserved to lose the game to the hosts. They did open the scoring through Raheem Sterling but were quickly pegged back when Saints’ midfielder Romeo Lavia smashed home. Adam Armstrong won the game for the home side on the stroke of half-time with a powerful strike on the stroke of half-time which deflected off Blues centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly. 

Speaking to BT Sport after the game the German lamented his team’s mentality once they had been pegged back. He said: “Obviously we struggle with our focus and with the consistency in matches, it’s not enough to play 20 minutes good. We did the same in Leeds.

“One thing goes against us and then we struggle to find answers and fight our way back. Things don’t go in our direction today and we started to struggle and adapt so the situation got out of our hands.

“I think it doesn’t take a lot to beat us. This is what I don’t like. We are humble enough to understand that we can lose football matches. But we don’t like it and then we try to win every match but the way we do this by changing as fast as possible.”

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The German also lamented the club’s luck with injuries. Reece James was a notable absentee from the starting line-up after suffering from illness while key player N’Golo Kante is also currently out. Ruben Loftus-Cheek joined the growing injury list after being taken off at half-time with a hamstring injury. Matteo Kovacic was brought on to replace the Englishman at half-time despite only just returning from injury himself. 

“There’s no one left in midfield,” the Chelsea manager said. “The recommendation for Mateo Kovacic was 20 minutes but he played 45. I also don’t understand why we are in this situation regarding the injuries but that’s the way it is and need to find solutions.”

The Blues have been struggling for form in front of goal with Sterling being the only member of the front three to have scored this season. 

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The former Borussia Dortmund boss lamented the team’s struggles in front of goal against Southampton but conceded it was not a new issue. 

“It’s a reality,” the 49-year-old said when asked if he was frustrated that Sterling was the only one scoring. “It has happened to our offensive players many times. I think in the first 20 minutes we created chances, half chances, but we struggled to score which is also not brand new for us. The consequence is that you end up losing the match.” 

Tuchel’s men will have the perfect opportunity to put things right when they take on West Ham in a London derby on Saturday. The club’s form will need to turn around quickly otherwise they risk losing ground on their top-four rivals.