The German tactician insisted the forward ‘needed’ to ‘make a statement’ and prove he remains an ‘important player’ at Stamford Bridge.
Werner scored a brace in Chelsea’s amazing victory on the south coast as Thomas Tuchel’s side recovered from back-to-back defeats to smash the Saints away as though they causes their humiliation.
The champions of Europe humiliated by the bees as they were beaten 4-1and suffered a 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday night in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
The German striker has been linked with a move away from blues in recent weeks and Tuchel insists the onus was on Werner to ‘make a statement’ against Southampton.
Asked whether £47.5m signing Werner showed his ability in the 6-0 thrashing and made a statement, Tuchel said:
But the champions of Europe rioted like wounded lions and smashed a shell-shocked Southampton side, with Marcos Alonso, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz also getting on the scoresheet.
Werner has has now recorded his 10th Premier League start at St Mary’s and justified his selection with an amazing performance and marked the memory with a brace.
Tuchel added "of course it was his position, it was the players around him, the connection with Mason [Mount], Kai [Havertz[ and Mateo [Kovacic]. He loves to play and he has a connection with these players.
‘He was in a double striker position, the half left position, and it was against an opponent that we could imagine we’d find spaces in behind because they play a high attack.
‘So it was set out for him to deliver, honestly. Everything was there for him to deliver and make a statement that he has not given up, that he is still an important player of this club and this group. And he did.
‘It was necessary, very good and strong, but necessary.’
On Chelsea’s overall display, Tuchel added: ‘The performance changed, the commitment and the discipline.
This is how we want to play and we gave an answer finally because you could see it on the scoreboard. It reflects the performance today which was very good.
‘It is always a players’ game but we try to prepare them as well as possible. We are always happy for players to manage the game and they did.
‘You could see they were focused to play to the plan and we did it with concentration, commitment, hunger and of course with quality"
The champions of travels to Madrid with their current win as a boost to try and over turn their 3-1 defeat to a win against the Giants of Spain before taking to crystal palace in their game.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0