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Thomas Tuchel responds to clai...

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Thomas Tuchel responds to claims Timo Werner is unhappy at Chelsea


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Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has responded to rumours that Timo Werner is unhappy with life at the club. 

The Germany international striker only joined from RB Leipzig last summer for €58million.

Werner's scored just one Premier League goal since Tuchel's arrival, and started last weekend's scoreless draw away to Leeds on the bench.

His first season at Stamford Bridge has by no means been a failure, however, with the 25-year old scoring 10 times in 38 appearances in all competitions.

Despite that, rumours have begun to swirl that Werner isn't loving life in West London at the moment.

When asked if he'd read the conjecture around Werner, Tuchel replied, "Stop reading, stop reading, what do you read? Read a book. There is no book about Timo Werner. So read a book."

The former Borussia Dortmund boss added, "For Timo, I think he has no reason now to frustrated because he had an amazing match against Liverpool, maybe his best match since I arrived.

"Then he had a good match against Everton, with a lot of chances to score, which he normally is clinical enough and strong enough. He did not score. Okay, this sticks in a situation like this.

"This can affect his self confidence, of course, but what does it help? The clear advice from us is don’t focus on the result, focus on the process, get your decision making right, get your technique right, take good decisions, for the decision take the right technique and the ball will do the rest.

"The ball or the opponents’ goalkeeper will do the rest and then it is in or he does an amazing save. He can improve from there. There is simply no time to reflect on what is going to be in summer or next year.

"In the moment I don’t see why he should be frustrated.

"We gave him a little bit of time to breathe against Leeds. It was hard for him to come on, so he was not too much involved in the last 20 minutes because it was not our best game, but right now I don’t se why he should be too frustrated.

"Honestly, nobody here is blaming the strikers. It is a team effort to attack and a team effort to defend, but we expect our guys to create more chances and be more decisive.

"Because we expect the defenders to play on their highest level so we expect our strikers to be. It is my responsibility to put them in the right mindset and the right positions and let them play regularly and there on we go.

"Maybe all the stuff you read will hopefully disappear soon."

Chelsea entertain Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night, as they aim to seal a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

A defensive approach from Atletico raised eyebrows three weeks ago, but Tuchel is expecting a slightly different challenge from Diego Simeone's cohort at Stamford Bridge.

"They have Trippier, Jimenez and Carrasco back, that changes a little the structure and style of attacking," the German said.

"It gives them the freedom to attack with Carrasco and Trippier on the side. Llorente is available on the half positions, so that changes their approach a little.

"But in general I expect more or less the same. A team which is hard to play against, hard to find spaces behind the lines, and behind the last lines, and for sure super hard to create chances.

"It's a big challenge for us like in the first leg, but we played an amazing match there and we want to repeat the same performance to be able to go through.

"We know how hard it is to beat Atletico but this is our plan."

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Atletico Madrid Champions League Chelsea Thomas Tuchel Timo Werner UEFA Champions League

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