Tuchel keen for James to return to right-sided role
Thomas Tuchel has indicated that Reece James playing in midfield for Chelsea will not be a regular occurrence.
James, usually a right-sided defender or wing-back, was deployed in midfield for the 3-3 draw with Zenit in the Champions League.
He has played in the role before, on loan at Wigan and while coming through Chelsea’s academy.
But boss Tuchel confirmed he only switched James because of the Blues’ injury problems and very much sees him as a wide-man.
Midfielders N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were unavailable for Wednesday’s match.
Defender Trevoh Chalobah, who can operate in midfield, is also currently out injured.
Tuchel explained. “I expect normally N’Golo, Mateo, Jorgi or Ruben to start in midfield.
“But they are all out so we need to be a bit creative and put Reece in there because we knew about Zenit’s quality in midfield and wanted to have some physicality.
“That’s why he helped us there. The target is to put him back on the wing. But for this we need players who can play in central midfield.”
Tuchel suggested Chelsea became complacent against Zenit.
The hosts’ stoppage-time equaliser cost Chelsea top spot in the group and means they go into the knockout stage unseeded.
Their performance deteriorated after an impressive opening 15 minutes in which Timo Werner gave them the lead after just 84 seconds.
Tuchel admitted: “We had a very good first 15 minutes and then we stopped doing the things we did in the first 15 minutes.
“In my opinion we had a feeling that ‘This is OK. We are in charge. We are the better team’.
“But we were forgetting why we were the better team – (it was) because of the investment, the level of concentration. The level was high enough to be the better team.
“And once this drops 5%, 10% – and it did – once we change our behavior we get punished at the moment. It happened at West Ham and again today.
“We started playing balls back, not attacking with the same aggression and same hunger and we’ve been punished twice.”
Already sure of a place in the knockout phase, Chelsea were poor defensively and found themselves behind at half-time after conceding twice in the space of three minutes.
A poor clearance by Cesar Azpilicueta enabled Douglas Santos to cross for an unmarked Claudinho to head in the equaliser.
The second goal came after another defensive mishap.
Ross Barkley’s attempted pass fell straight to Claudinho, who played the ball forward to Malcom. Andreas Christensen made a mess of trying to play the offside trap and Malcom was able to tee up Sardar Azmoun, who applied the finish.
Barkley atoned by playing a key role in the build-up to Romelu Lukaku’s leveller.
He found Werner, who drew the keeper towards him before laying the ball off to Lukaku to score into an unguarded net.
And Werner scored with five minutes remaining to seemingly clinch victory.
Christian Pulisic exchanged passes with Hakim Ziyech and threaded the ball through to the German, who cut inside and fired home.
But Magomed Ozdoev’s fantastic half-volley from near the edge of the penalty area means Chelsea could now face Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
The other possible opponents are Ajax or the winner of the group containing Lille, Salzburg, Sevilla and Wolfsburg.
“My analysis is very clear: our behaviour changes when we have a lead,” said Tuchel.
“This is something we never did and should never do. If you change then you allow the chance to be punished. The challenge is to close the door.”
