Thomas Tuchel sends message to Ben Chilwell about his struggles for Chelsea minutes

Thomas Tuchel has sent a message to Ben Chilwell as the 24-year-old is struggling for game time at Chelsea. Last season Chilwell played a key role in Chelsea's Champions League triumph against Manchester City in May, and even was named in England's Euro 2020 squad and was riding the crest of a wave. However, he had lost his place in England's side to Kieran Trippier and then Luke Shaw and at club level, has seen Marcos Alonso surpass him in the left wing-back spot of Tuchel's five-man defence. And the Blues boss said Chilwell looked "mentally tired" upon his return to training in early August. Tuchel said in his pre-match press conference ahead of Champions League clash vs Zenit:

"It has absolutely been difficult for him and I think it is pretty normal. He came from a Champions League win and from a 90 minutes and a strong performance and had a good end of the season and played a lot of minutes for us and many important, crucial games on a high level.   "Then it was individually for him, personally a tough Euros because there were chances I think where he thought he could have played. He did not. So personally I know that it was a tough one because you feel he did everything to push the team. You feel as part of the team but you don’t feel it really if you don’t sweat it out on the pitch and you never wear the shirt and you are never really involved, it is a strange feeling.   "It was necessary to keep training for four or five weeks continuously. Then he had a personal break and it was hard for him to totally relax and to get his personal disappointment like off the shoulders. When he arrived here I felt him mentally tired. Still worrying about the situation and at the same time he had to accept.   "He was very unlucky – also now during the start of the season because Marcos was here the whole pre-season. We did every single training session and he took this opportunity so great and with such huge quality and attitude, so Marcos was crucial for us in the first day of training and then he delivered in Chilly’s position and these are two specialists for the same position, so this is a tough competition for both of them."

  Source - football.london Join us on Telegram!/ Follow us on Twitter!

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