Thomas Tuchel has admitted that bringing on Romelu Lukaku during Chelsea's 3-2 loss to West Ham on Saturday was a mistake.
Tuchel started Lukaku on the bench but brought him into the game in the second half after Kai Havertz was forced out with an injury.
Lukaku had only made three appearances since returning from an ankle injury sustained in October, and Tuchel confessed the striker wasn't 'physically' ready to play 45 minutes.
'It's my fault,' Tuchel remarked to Chelsea's official website. 'I don't think he's physically ready for 45 minutes, but we chose to bring him on for his height after losing Kai.' Kai played a key role in defending set-pieces, which West Ham poses a significant threat, thus this is my fault. It is my duty because I made the decision.'Tuchel also assessed on Chelsea's overall performance, noting that their loss against West Ham dropped them to third place in the table, behind Manchester City and Liverpool.
Tuchel insists there are "no huge doubts" despite the fact that his team has only won two of their last five Premier League games.
He stated, "
'It's all about the details,' the boss said, 'and you can always solve the details.' 'There is no need to dispute the larger picture or to have serious doubts.' It's clear, in my opinion, why we didn't get the results we needed against Man United and West Ham, so it's all about the specifics. That's why I believe we'll be able to solve the problem right quickly.
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Nobody wants to make mistakes, but telling people, "Hey, don't make mistakes anymore," isn't going to help. 'We have to go through it, and we have to improve our decision-making in important times of games in order to keep clean sheets or only concede one goal.'
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