Tuchel minds the gap

THOMAS TUCHEL admits Chelsea may struggle to narrow the gap on Liverpool and Manchester City even if they secure a couple of ‘key’ signings once Government sanctions are lifted.

‘It is going to be very difficult because even if we keep the team and have maybe the chance to add one or two key players it would already be difficult. Maybe even very difficult. Still we are not sure if we play the same season again,’ the Chelsea boss said.

‘It was an incredible season from (City and Liverpool) and in the end I don’t lie to myself.’

Chelsea head into the final day and a game with Watford having secured third. But they are 18 points off Liverpool in second. They already face losing defenders Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, and Tuchel claims Chelsea will never catch the teams above while they ‘struggle’ with ‘consistency (and) determination’ in the other penalty area.

‘The numbers we produce from our offensive players don’t allow us to overperform and we need over-performance if we want to be anywhere nearer to the top two teams. I am not pointing fingers, I am not blaming anybody,’

Tuchel said. ‘If we stick to the group then we will try to solve it with these players. Is it necessary to bring more offensive players around the box to create more distractions, to create more space? Can we push players more? Did we rotate too much? There are a lot of options.’

Sanctions currently mean Chelsea are unable to sell or sign players, or hand out new contracts.

‘Maybe we suffer already from the delay. But we will try to have our impact. We have a strong opinion on what’s missing and what we need. We will try to find it and give our opinion and fight for it,’ Tuchel added.