Is Thomas Tuchel an ideal candidate for the next Barcelona manager? A high-profile manager must be the main task for Barcelona. We had many mediocre guys through the last 15 years; even Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique were beginners at their time in Barca.
The class manager is the key, just like quality coaching, fitness, and medical staff. They can do remarkable things, install new modern tactics, and develop our kids in a few years. We need patience, but we also have no time for another mistake.
Frank Lampard vs. Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea
Under Lampard, you scored like 61 goals in 27 games. After Thomas Tuchel took over, it was 37 goals in the following 30 games. You sacrificed a lot of attack for the pragmatic setup.
The only reason he gets away with largely uninspired performances, like at Bayern and Chelsea, is because of the end result, and when the results don’t come quite often, it is not his fault but rather the players. He’ll want new and better players instead of fixing his approach with the talent currently at his disposal. The number of terrible tactical decisions he’s made in less than a year at Bayern is too much already.
His man-management is not great at all, and the lack of chemistry within his team that he’s contributed to is evident. Bayern’s squad is weaker but still enough to win the league.
Thomas Tuchel stacked like nine players in the defensive third at Chelsea, with players like in-form Thiago Silva, Rüdiger, James, Kanté, and Mendy, etc., and just prayed that Chelsea could get a scrappy goal. He is far too formulaic and not adaptive enough to the opposition.
Your best performances were always against teams that played with a mid-block and came to play open stuff, which he would find ways to counter fairly effectively. But if you had to be on the dominant team or were on the front foot against a low-block team, it was very often a snooze.
It’s understandable that the way Thomas Tuchel was sacked and how he changed Chelsea’s fortunes around enough to win the Champions League have him in a positive mind for many Chelsea fans, but there’s still a ton of context behind all the numbers and his adaptability and style as a coach.
It’s similar to how Flick changed Bayern’s fortunes around a lot after Kovač’s infamous autobahn comment, but Tuchel IMO has not had his team play consistently entertaining football since Dortmund. Even his P$G side scraped through to the final despite not being the better team in a few of their matches.
As it stands, the best that Thomas Tuchel can offer isn’t guaranteed. The worst he offers is unfortunately already on display, and it is a big risk for a club in our situation. Tuchel was genuinely one of my favourite managers for years, but IMO, he just isn’t a good fit in multiple ways for us now. However, I still have a solid feeling his absolute end goal was always to coach us.
Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel never got “found out”.
Reece James and Chilwell just got injured at the same time, and Chelsea were forced to play Azpi and Alonso as wingbacks for large stretches of time.
It was a problem for Chelsea because their squad was set up so that we basically had to play a back 3 (Thiago Silva was best in a back 3, Kante was best in a midfield 2, etc.), but the depth wingbacks were bad.
I think fans vastly underestimate the pedigree of the position to head a club like Barcelona. For most coaches, managing Barcelona is a huge achievement to show on their resume.
The city is fabulous, and the club is loaded with natural talent emerging all the time. Moreover, the heated rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona is an unforgettable experience. For many ambitious coaches, it’s worth it to take the gamble in their career and be a part of the spectacle.
We have had the chance to move fast before other clubs enter the fray. Let’s see if we can make anything of this head start.