Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has slammed his starting front three, claiming they forced Mateo Kovacic and N'Golo Kante to do extra work in midfield in Saturday's 1-0 loss to Manchester City.
The Blues finished the game with four shot attempts, only one of which was on target, and all of them came in the second half.
The visitors could barely get out of their own half in the first half due to Manchester City's relentless pressure.
Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic, and Romelu Lukaku had only 23, 26, and 21 touches, respectively, in the game, accounting for nearly half of Manchester City's front three.
Tuchel was never going to be pleased with such a performance, but he was surprisingly candid about it during his post-match press conference.
"Yes, I think Kova played a major role in it alongside NG in all of our attack," the German said when asked about his team's improved second-half performance on Chelsea TV.
"[This] tells the story; these are our 'double six' on the field; they look after the work rate, the ball recoveries, and even the creation of chances."
RONALDO SHOULD STOP WHINING.
"In the first half, the performance in the opponent's half was insufficient. We lost too many balls, and our counter-attacks lacked positioning and timing.
"We need to step up there; we need to demonstrate more quality at this level." [We] can't always rely on Jorgi to score penalties — it's just like that."
The German didn't name anyone, but it's safe to assume he was referring to Pulisic, Ziyech, and Lukaku's first-half performance.
To be fair, Tuchel chose the team and thus bears some of the blame.
The manager didn't have many options at the back, but he could use almost all of his attackers.
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