Social media reacts to shock sacking after Champions League loss
Julien Laurens reacts to Chelsea’s sacking of Thomas Tuchel. (1:05)
Chelsea have sacked manager Thomas Tuchel after a poor start to the 2022-23 season culminated in Tuesday’s woeful defeat in their Champions League group-stage opener at Dinamo Zagreb, but the announcement of the firing still came as a shock.
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The Blues have lost three of their past five games — an underwhelming run that includes Premier League upsets against Leeds United and Southampton.
The 1-0 defeat against Dinamo in Croatia was Tuchel’s 100th game in charge of Chelsea since being appointed as head coach in January 2021.
Just 123 days later, the German conquered the Champions League before adding the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup to the haul shortly thereafter. However, he didn’t have it all his own way in finals, losing in back-to-back FA Cup showpieces to Leicester City and Liverpool while also losing to Jurgen Klopp;s side in the Carabao Cup.
He now departs Chelsea less than one week after the club’s new owners broke the Premier League record for spending in a single transfer window by splashing over £270 million on Raheem Sterling, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Kalidou Koulibaly and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Thomas Tuchel has left Chelsea just SIX days after they broke the Premier League transfer spending record in one window 🤯 pic.twitter.com/o7ZUNO9FMM
Tuchel won 60 of the games he oversaw at Chelsea, drawing 24 and losing 16 times. His overall win percentage of 60% holds up pretty well against the Blues’ previous three managers, though of course he remains the only one among them to have won the biggest prize during his time in West London.
Win % of last four Chelsea managers:
◎ Antonio Conte: 65%
◎ Maurizio Sarri: 62%
◎ Frank Lampard: 52%
◉ Thomas Tuchel: 60%
But no one else won the #UCL. 😅 pic.twitter.com/kiisuC0OFZ
That said, one particularly ominous stat lays bare the breakdown of his team’s defensive resoluteness in the second half of his tenure, with Chelsea conceding just 24 goals during the German’s first 50 games as manager only to ship more double that amount (53) in the latter half.
49% – Thomas #Tuchel was in charge of Chelsea for 100 games in all competitions, registering 49 clean sheets – no other team in Europe’s big five leagues kept as high a proportion of shut-outs (49%) or conceded as few goals on average (0.8 per game) in that the period. Sacked. pic.twitter.com/zQjLp0ul59
His sacking at this juncture perhaps shouldn’t come as too much of a shock given that Tuchel tends not to last more than two years at any major club — just ask Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, where his tenures both ended before he came close to completing a third campaign.
Thomas Tu-seasons amirite?
Obviously guiding the club to Champions League glory in 2020-21 will have to go down as Tuchel’s finest moment at Chelsea, beating fellow Premier League rivals Manchester City in the final to lift the trophy for the first time since 2011-12.
Other lesser European titles followed as well as a smattering of domestic finals the following season, but respective league finishes of fourth and third under the German tactician will no doubt be looked upon as relatively disappointing.
Thomas Tuchel leaves Chelsea with a legacy 👏
🏆 Champions League
🏆 Super Cup
🏆 Club World Cup pic.twitter.com/mMUqFqH8Ue
Social media reaction to Tuchel’s early-season departure has been mixed with some fans questioning the sense of allowing the transfer window to come and go before beginning the process of hiring a new head coach.
There were even wry whispers that new co-owner Todd Boehly — who appointed himself as the club’s director of football for the summer transfer window — might already have the perfect candidate lined up.
Huge call by Todd Boehly to sack Thomas Tuchel. But what an opportunity for Tuchel’s successor, Todd Boehly.
Some imagined scenes from the post-Dinamo debrief between Tuchel and Boehly on Wednesday morning akin to his running touchline battle with Conte during last month’s 2-2 draw with London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Todd & Thomas this morning #Tuchel #Chelsea
For better or worse, that clash with Conte will go down as one of the most memorable images of his time at Chelsea, and perhaps that was the moment it all started to go wrong.
HE WAS NEVER THE SAME pic.twitter.com/kjS6WycEs1
There were also chuckles over the brevity of the former Dortmund boss’s reunion with Aubameyang, which lasted a full 59 minutes on Tuesday evening.
Tuchel and Aubameyang were reunited for just 59 minutes of football 😬 pic.twitter.com/thRqggMNlN
Oh well, they’ll always have Zagreb.