Tuchel explains Alonso’s recall and the absence of Ziyech

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Head coach Thomas Tuchel says the surprise decision to recall Marcos Alonso to play at left-wing-back against Burnley is because of the Spaniard’s ability in the air.

Tuchel, who replaced club legend Frank Lampard as boss last week, has made four changes for his second game in charge- the scoreless 0-0 draw with Wolves – bringing in Alonso, Mason Mount, Timo Werner and Tammy Abraham.




Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Olivier Giroud all miss out, with winger Ziyech not in the squad.

“Marcos did not play a lot but it’s his key position, his best position,” Tuhel explained. “Second of all we went for him instead of Chilly because of his strength in the air.

“We need that for set-pieces, also defensively, and there will be many long balls to defend and many duels in the air, so for this we give Marcos a chance.

“Hakim has been in a bit of overload since five weeks so he has a bit of a risk of getting injured if he plays more than say 30 minutes. For that we decided to take a break now to go out of the risk zone. We decided this yesterday.”

England international Mount and Abraham both came off the bench in Tuchel’s first game, with Mount standing out following his late but impressive appearance in midweek.

N’Golo Kante is back among the substitutes after a hamstring injury.

Tuchel said Chelsea would line up with the same formation as they used in the draw against Wolves but would be more “aggressive” going forward.

The German said: “There were a lot of good pictures to show, a lot of good behaviours that we want to repeat, and at the same time make some changes to let everybody prove they are competitors, and to give me a better impression of what they are capable of.

“We have changed the front three so they have different characteristics, but it is not a choice we have made because we were disappointed with anything from Wednesday. It’s just to give everybody time on the pitch.

“We decided to stay in the same structure and be positive we can do the little details better, play more vertically and play a bit more aggressively into the opponents’ box.”


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