A Spanish banquet, small footballs and 'The Captain Class' - inside Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea

The German has learnt from past mistakes at PSG and Borussia Dortmund to hit the ground running in West London

A Spanish banquet, small footballs and 'The Captain Class' - inside Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea

Thomas Tuchel had a decision to make. Chelsea's head coach was plotting his squad's itinerary for one of his biggest weeks in charge - a Champions League quarter-final second leg against Porto in Seville and his first trip to Wembley for the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City and the manager he had never beaten, Pep Guardiola.

Conventional wisdom dictated that, with only three days between the games, his players should have been spending every spare minute after the Porto tie preparing for that formidable task against City. But conformity has never been Tuchel’s style.

Rather than flying straight back to England after his side closed out an aggregate win over Porto and starting their preparations for City the following day, Tuchel decided that the Chelsea squad and staff would stay on an extra night in Spain to have a “glass of wine or a sip of beer” as well as a buffet dinner.

Chelsea’s players, in Tuchel’s view, had earned the right to let their hair down for the night following 11 weeks of hard work under him and the German and his coaching team saw it as a chance to mingle with support staff in a relaxed atmosphere at the team hotel.

But midway through the evening, Tuchel acknowledged the fact that the extra night had not resulted in some much-needed down time for all of Chelsea’s employees in Seville.

The two club chefs Chelsea take on all of their trips were managing the hotel kitchen, when Tuchel walked in and took them out into the main room for the players and staff to show their appreciation with a loud round of applause. They were given the rest of the night off and, from then on, it was very much a case of “help yourself” for anybody who still wanted a late night bite to eat.

Chelsea did not return to work at their Cobham training ground until Thursday of that week, but 48 hours later Tuchel secured his first-ever success against Guardiola as his side beat City to book their place in the FA Cup final, in which they take on Leicester City on Saturday.

Tuchel’s light touch and willingness to look beyond conventional wisdom have been the biggest features of what has been an incredible run to both the Champions League and FA Cup finals since he succeeded Frank Lampard in late January.

Even when tempers flared, after the West Bromwich Albion aberration, Tuchel quickly managed to ease the tension. He sent Antonio Rudiger in from training early after he had come to blows with Kepa Arrizabalaga, admitting in a press conference a couple of days later that the incident had been “serious”.

But those who had arrived at training on the morning after the clash between Rudiger and Kepa found that there was no lasting animosity, either between the players or from Tuchel himself, and the pair played together again two weeks later in the semi-final victory over City in which they helped Chelsea keep a clean sheet.

There is a sense among insiders that, having worked with egos the size of Neymar at Paris Saint-Germain, Tuchel is perfectly equipped to handle a domineering character such as Rudiger and he made re-engaging the disaffected players one of his early priorities.

Other than the crime novels he reads during his spare time, one of Tuchel’s favourite books is The Captain Class, which examines the traits of sport’s most effective leaders and how they do not always conform to popular expectation.

Rudiger and Marcos Alonso had both upset Lampard, but the author of The Captain Class, Sam Walker, dedicates a chapter to those players who do not follow the profile of conventional leaders and yet prove to be vital components to the outstanding teams they played for. Among the features listed are the fact "they were not angels" and did "potentially divisive things". 

Rudiger and Alonso could both be viewed as troublesome or selfish for some acts of indiscipline. But they also have trophy-winning qualities that have been harnessed by Tuchel, particularly in the case of Rudiger. 

“It doesn’t make any sense to create tension or pressure, which is one of the most important causes of injuries to players,” said Rainer Schrey, who worked with Tuchel as a fitness coach at Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and PSG. “But I also know that Thomas can be very direct and address things clearly if they are going in the wrong direction.”

César Azpilicueta had been largely a non-playing captain this season before Tuchel’s arrival, but the Spaniard meets each of the seven traits of a so-called ‘elite captain’ that Walker lists in his book - doggedness, aggressive play, a willingness to do a thankless job in the shadows, a practical and democratic communication style, motivating others with non-verbal displays, strong convictions and courage, and emotional control.

It is, therefore, no surprise that Azpilicueta was immediately reinstated into the team by Tuchel and the Spaniard has once again led by example in a defence that has kept 18 clean sheets under the 47-year-old.

Despite his admiration for Walker’s study of the subject, Tuchel has insisted that his inspiration is not simply taken from a leadership book or looking at sport’s greatest performers and that he has attempted to learn from the likes of “the person who runs the school of my daughters” and “people who sell stuff”.

During their 10 years together, Schrey witnessed how Tuchel would look outside the box for fresh ideas that manifested themselves on the training pitch, in his tactical approach and in his relationships inside clubs.

“He is very open minded and interested in other sources and ideas that can have a positive influence on his game, training and personal development,” said Schrey. “In addition to studying what high performance athletes and coaches are doing, he is interested in things beside sport that give him inspiration and/or relaxation.”

One relaxation technique Tuchel has adopted ahead of games is meditation which he will no doubt rely on ahead of Chelsea’s FA Cup final, for which his wife Sissi will be present, the two remaining Premier League games that will decide his side's top-four fate and the Champions League final.

“In the morning [of the game], I try to wake up early and do some sports and some meditation,” said Tuchel. “Just 20 minutes in my room, breathe in, breathe out. And try hard to do nothing. 

“Some years ago, I came to this. It helped me because it was a nice experience. When I was a coach at Dortmund or maybe between Mainz and Dortmund. I am sometimes disciplined and do it twice a day, other times I forget and go without it for a couple of weeks.”

Asked if he finds a higher plane of consciousness while he is meditating, Tuchel replied: “Usually I fly 20 or 30 centimetres off the floor, I glide around the room! No, it is nothing special. It is breathing and trying hard to do nothing.”

In Schrey’s opinion, Tuchel’s unusual training sessions, which have included playing with small footballs or players holding tennis balls, can benefit both the mind and body - particularly at a time when there are so many games and such little time for recovery.

“We had a lot of small funny games and exercises especially for the regeneration training sessions on the pitch,” said Schrey. “They create fun, have a little bit of coordination input and let the players move without great mechanical impact. They are ideal for a fast active recovery between the short game intervals.”

Described as a ‘tactical chameleon’, Tuchel has stuck with much the same formation at Stamford Bridge, but has heavily rotated his team in his 26 games in charge. Not everybody has benefited, with Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud spending more time on the sidelines than they wanted, but Chelsea have been able to out-run many of their rivals in recent weeks.

It has not worked on every occasion and Tuchel’s honesty, which has been a feature of his media interviews, was evident this week when he had admitted that he had changed too many players for the defeat by Arsenal.

“This rotation is something we have always practised in the past,” said Schrey. “When the team is playing an extremely large number of games at the highest performance level, this is usually to do with physical and mental training control. Thomas is also a coach who likes to pick specific types of players for specific games.”

Tuchel’s ability to manage upwards had been questioned at both Dortmund and PSG, having been sacked by both clubs after falling out with officials, but there is a sense that he may have learned from past mistakes.

“Of course, things are often reported that do not quite correspond to the facts,” said Schrey. “But I think that Thomas has developed extremely well, not only professionally but also in his social skills in recent years even though it is important that a coach has a clear opinion.”

Tuchel has not used Chelsea’s impressive run of results to try to apply pressure over an extension to his contract that will only have a year left to run at the end of this season and has been happy to deal with director Marina Granovskaia, rather than angling for direct contact with owner Roman Abramovich.

There is also optimism that Tuchel is developing a strong working relationship with technical performance adviser, Petr Cech, whose office is opposite the head coach’s at the club’s Cobham complex. The 38-year-old former goalkeeper has continued to train with the squad, meaning that he is part of the team meetings and can easily be consulted.

Tuchel is yet to navigate his first transfer window at Chelsea, but the expectation is that he will remain in close contact with Cech, who speaks fluent German, and Granovskaia during the summer.

It is understood that Tuchel has already made it clear internally that he would be relaxed about the prospect of starting next season with more or less the same squad that will finish this campaign if primary targets prove out of reach.

“Transfer periods can be real mood breaks between coaches and clubs,” said Tuchel, breaking out into laughter. “And I don’t want to have this ever again.”

“I have zero ambition to ruin this atmosphere. Do we have some ideas on how to improve the squad? Yes, we do. But will we fight about it? No, we will not.”

Issues may yet arise further down the line, but, right now, Tuchel is the right head coach at the right time for Chelsea. And timing, as was the case in 2012 when the club won an FA Cup and Champions League double, is everything.

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