Thomas Tuchel addressed the media ahead of Chelsea's Premier League fixture against Burnley on Saturday afternoon.
Chelsea host the Clarets in west London at Stamford Bridge and will do so sitting at the top of the Premier League, leading the pack on 25 points after ten games played.
A 3-0 win against Newcastle United last weekend was followed up with a narrow 1-0 victory over Malmo on Tuesday night in the Champions League.
Here's every word the Chelsea boss said ahead of the match in his pre-match press conference:
ON TEAM NEWS
“Yes but no news for the match tomorrow for Romelu or Timo. Both are out. Christian Pulisic is out with the group as he was for Malmo. Unfortunately Marcos Alonso and Mateo are out. Alonso injured himself in the last minute of the Malmo match. He tried to come out for training but the stress was too high, too painful on his ankle. Nothing big but too painful in the moment. He will not be in the squad tomorrow.“
ON ROME LUKAKU RETURN :
“If I give you any date now I need to confirm or give other dates. We have the national break now then we will be more clear. We will use the time and see what is going on during the second week of the national break. If you ask me the question and I can be more precise than now. We will use the break, have every day treatment for him, Timo and Mateo to bring them on the pitch as soon as POSSIBLE.
On Mason mount England call, despite Chelsea absence :
“It’s a bit of a tricky one. He was ill. The reason was the tooth. This exists. This is the reason for the illness and feeling of illness. It is a bit of an infection. He was back in training today and yesterday. He lost a bit of weight, he could not eat properly so he takes medication. Let’s see. He is in the squad for tomorrow. He can play some minutes but we will need to wait for the reaction because it seems like some proper treatment needs to be done.”
On Antonio Conte’s appointment at Tottenham:
“Of course it is good news for the Premier League. He is one of the best managers in the world if you look at his records and his titles. It will make it super tough to play against Tottenham, I am absolutely sure. I am in a happy place and not concerned about what other people do, what other clubs do. I enjoy very much where I am.”
On Squad Management and Fatigue
“A little bit (of fatigue). At the same time we are happy to play every three days. We are able to give one day off for mental recovery. We had two training sessions together. We meet again later for dinner and sleepover in a hotel to use the time properly and take care about our time when we rest, to be ready to play sharp again tomorrow. I know that we demand a lot in the moment. It is important we demand a lot of ourselves. We expect a very tough opponent tomorrow who is a bit short of points but not performance. Burnley plays a very strong, intense game. They have a very courageous approach like how they played at Manchester City, high intensive pressing. We have to be on our best level to find the solution and match the intensity they bring to the games. We demand a lot from our players and ourselves but it is necessary that we bring all this to the pitch because there’s a strong opponent waiting. It could be human or reasonable to say ‘okay, we have already six from seven matches, okay somehow we will manage it again because it is a home game, we are a strong squad’. It is not like this. We need to be on a high level, 95 per cent is not enough. We need to push everybody no matter if we are tired or not. That’s the schedule and in the end we managed everybody. Some of the guys, especially upfront. We suffered some injuries with Mason and Christian out, Timo and Romelu too. We are a bit in trouble in terms of maybe being overused and tired. At the same time everybody wants to be on the pitch and this is the moment to be on the pitch.”
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