Tuchel worried about Chelsea’s mentality, the lack of commitment shown during the US Tour.

It’s easy to overreact to what happens in the preseason, especially losses, and especially heavy losses in otherwise rivalry games. While results never really matter, “fake games,” as José Mourinho once called them, sometimes herald bad seasons (Mourinho’s 2015 preseason springs to mind, also in the united states).

It’s also easy to underreact in some way. At the end of the day, the “Florida Cup” is not a thing, even if it exists in physical form. Winning is always preferable to losing, but these are still just friendlies that are more useful as physical exercises with perhaps a few tactical tweaks.

What is worrying, however, is the general lack of commitment, focus and effort that we have witnessed for much of the three games in the last two weeks in the US, particularly the last two this week in Charlotte and, last night, , in Orlando. .

Sure, it’s just preseason. We’re talking about practice here! But Thomas Tuchel certainly wants to see more of the team from him, especially since he puts such an emphasis on the preseason.

“We just weren’t good enough. We were absolutely not competitive. The worrying thing is the level of commitment, physical and mental, because this match was not the same, it was much higher for Arsenal than for us”.

“[We] it needs to be more lively and aggressive. The level of commitment, the level of physical input, it just wasn’t enough. The adaptation of the position, the joy of helping each other, the joy of working hard together was what was missing.

“This is not a time to destroy my group because it is a very nice and hard-working group, this is not going to change. But for today, this is the honest review of the game. This is not worth talking about. It was like that today.”

[…]

“I don’t know if I ever lost a preseason game 4-0. I don’t remember not winning two games in a row in preseason. I am a big fan of a strong pre-season in everything: atmosphere, feeling, performance, confidence.”

Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

We can blame a number of factors for these performances, from the tactical to the physical to the mental, from the sweltering heat to the uncertain future of many in the team. These two weeks in the United States have certainly been exhausting, and not only because of the intense training sessions.

“Today I saw a team in Arsenal that is mentally committed to a game idea, a level of exhaustion, a level of physical commitment that we could not match. Also, a level of mental commitment that we lacked because we have a lot of players who are thinking about leaving and looking at their options”.

[The] The analysis of the season does not change due to this game. Unfortunately it proved my point and the last week proves my point [when] I look at the last season and the parts of the game where we fight and how we fight.

“We got penalized and the players left us, we know some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is. We had an urgent appeal for quality players and a lot of quality players. We have two quality players, there is no doubt about that, but we are not that competitive and, unfortunately, we could see it today”.

“[We have] the same players, so why should anything change? We will see, hopefully, a development, but at the moment we have the same problems because we have the same players”.

“[We] I could feel the energy level drop after Las Vegas and after the Charlotte game due to the amount of travel, the humidity and the very high temperature. It made it difficult because it’s already been two weeks on the road.

“It’s also a point, but it’s a small point or an explanation of why we didn’t look fresh. I didn’t expect it today. I thought we slowed down a bit in training the last few days, but not in a way where we could expect fresh legs. So that wasn’t the biggest surprise, just the difference between being tired and playing like that.”

We have two weeks left until the actual start of the season. Excuses will get us nowhere fast, certainly nowhere in the right direction.

Let’s hope this is just a massive wake-up call, rather than a sign of things to come.

“I’m superstitious, but not in the sense that I say a bad preseason has to mean a bad season. That makes no sense. I am in it, I am part of it, and I need to find solutions.

“We fly home now and we only have a day and a half, on Tuesday we have to present solutions, we have to present actions. The coaching staff and I, along with the team, have to step up and find a way to get through this because it hurts right now.”

-Thomas Tuchel; font: Soccer.London

Back to work!

Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images