Ben Chilwell has not made a competitive appearance since playing the Champions League final against Manchester City at the end of last season.
Follow Us
Chelsea have enjoyed a brilliant start to the new season. They won two Premier League games and in the other match held on to a 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield despite going a man down. Prior to that, the Blues also won the UEFA Super Cup against Villarreal in a penalty shootout. Having seen his side play four competitive fixtures in 2021/22, manager Thomas Tuchel has explained the challenges he has faced in giving minutes on the pitch to players who did not start the season. One of those players who have struggled for game time is Ben Chilwell. The left-back has not made a competitive appearance since playing the Champions League final against Manchester City at the end of last season.
Chilwell is one of those players who began pre-season the latest due to involvement in the final stages of Euro 2020. He has since found himself missing out to Marcos Alonso for selection on the left-side of the Chelsea team. Chilwell, who was named in England’s squad for Euro 2020 this summer, returned to Chelsea on a later date but is yet to play for the Blues this term. Besides, centre-back Thiago Silva had also not played since the Copa America final until Reece James’ red card at Anfield. As a result, the Brazilian was introduced at half-time against the Reds.
“For Ben Chilwell, the explanation is very easy,” Thomas Tuchel was quoted by the club’s website. “He came back with the latest group and Marcos Alonso had five weeks in his legs from pre-season. Marcos played the first competitive matches after a fantastic pre-season. He was simply way more ready physically which was natural because of he did every single training session and was fantastic in the games. He played the Super Cup final and three Premier League games.”
The manager then gave his opinion on what he thinks about having only three substitutions allowed in the Premier League. “Also, we only have three substitutions allowed and this is the biggest problem and this is a huge disadvantage for English teams in European competition. We play in the toughest league and we have only three changes,” he added.
“Having to deal with so many physical situations, with the players arriving back late, you cannot say after 60 minutes, Ben now I give you 30 minutes. You cannot say let’s start with Thiago and see how long it goes.”
Thomas Tuchel also went on to praise Thiago Silva’s performance at Anfield and assured that Chilwell is “ready” now. “How Thiago played was excellent. I could feel that he was ready in the last week, he made a huge step and I’ve known him a long time now. Chilly needed his time in training to adapt to the intensity. He is ready now but it wasn’t the time to push him into the cold water.
“There would have been a brilliant opportunity to bring Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech on together for the last 20 minutes [at Anfield] but you can’t if you need to make two changes at half-time.
“It is a bit sad because you have more tactical opportunities if you have five changes. I don’t understand the arguments of the little teams that they have a disadvantage in this case. I was also a coach for a long time of a little team and I would have loved to have five players available.
“I think it is a huge disadvantage in general in Europe but why complain now, we cannot change it.”
