Thomas Tuchel Chelsea Tactic

With Thomas Tuchel it’s whether you like him or not. Or so it feels. But no matter what you think of him, winning a Champions League trophy shows the level of management he can be at.

And I say he CAN be at as recently it feels, at least in my opinion, that he stagnated in terms of results, irrespective of managing PSG or Bayern Munchen.

But, no doubt, he is a great football manager. And like any great football manager, he has one or more tactics that define his playing style.

And guess what, today we will talk about one of them. That’s right. What did you think this video was about, huh?

Thomas Tuchel is a German professional football manager and former player and is widely regarded as a forward-thinking tactical innovator.

Born in Krumbach, Tuchel retired as a footballer at age 25 due to a knee cartilage injury. He began his coaching career in 2000 as a youth coach at VfB Stuttgart and in 2009, after a one-year period as the head coach of FC Augsburg II, he was hired by Mainz 05, leaving the club in 2014.

He was the successor of Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund in 2015 and won the DFB-Pokal before being dismissed in 2017.

Thomas Tuchel was hired by Paris Saint-Germain in 2018 and won two league titles, including a domestic quadruple in his second season, and guided the club to its first UEFA Champions League final. Which they lost to Kinglsey Coman.

He then became head coach at Chelsea in 2021 and won the Champions League in his debut season, being named The Best FIFA Football Coach. He also won the UEFA Super Cup and Chelsea's first FIFA Club World Cup.

But, after disagreements with the club management, he was dismissed in 2022 and signed with Bayern Munich in 2023, winning the Bundesliga before being dismissed in 2024.

His coaching career started after he was hired by Ralf Rangnick back in 2000, as a youth coach. Which hints to the fact that he might have learned a thing or two from the Austrian manager. But that we can only speculate on.

What is certain is that his playing style relies heavily on tactical knowledge and flexibility. Being labelled a "tactical chameleon", his footballing style is characterised by flexibility and pragmatism.  

Talking about his tactical setup in Ben Lyttleton's Edge: What Business Can Learn From Football, Tuchel mentioned that "My [footballing] philosophy is an aesthetic one: "aesthetic" means [to] control the ball, the rhythm, to attack in every minute and to try to score as many goals as possible."

Tuchel is known as a tactical innovator and is often favorably compared to Pep Guardiola and the pair once discussed tactics together for over four hours.

Chelsea fans even labelled him Tommy Tactics in reference to his level of tactical play.

Some would say that being so detailed-oriented towards a tactical setup may ruin the game and take out the fun out of each match. However, with Thomas Tuchel, at least when he was managing Chelsea, it felt like the team got up one level and was even having fun just playing football.

Tuchel's Mainz side prioritized adaptability in their approach, changing formation or tactical setup multiple times each game to deal with the particular strengths of their opponent.

Speaking on this, he remarked, "We broke all [established] tactical rules [and assumptions] not for the sake of it, but because we were inferior in all aspects [at Mainz] and were forced to.”

During his time at Dortmund, Tuchel often used the 4–1–4–1 and 4–2–3–1 formations.

At Paris Saint-Germain, Tuchel primarily played a 4–3–3 with plenty of flair to emphasize the attacking capabilities of wide forwards Neymar and Mbappé (although he used up to ten different formations while at the club).

At Chelsea, Tuchel was known for making frequent player alterations in his early games. He made no less than 39 changes to the starting lineup in 10 Premier League games between January and March 2021.

He mostly preferred a 3–4–2–1 with ball progression and width largely coming from the wingbacks, a position mainly played by Reece James and Ben Chilwell.

While also restoring Antonio Rüdiger to a first-team regular, deploying him as a left centre-back in a back three, despite Rüdiger being right-footed.

The width provided by the wing-backs enables the rest of the attack to stay narrow ahead of two deeper midfield players to press or counterpress, relying on athletic central defenders (like Rüdiger) to cover any breakdowns.

This approach made Chelsea the third-highest scorers from high possession turnovers– after Liverpool and Brighton – in the 2021–22 season.

The team's general play with the ball was slower and emphasised calm possession in the opposition half to prevent counterattack.

In my save, with Bordeaux in the third French league, we had 59% possession of the ball and scored 77 goals and conceded 31.

Looking at the stats, they might not seem much for a team that only by name, should dominate their league. But during Tuchel’s time at Chelsea, the team averaged a 62% average ball possession, with 109 goals scored and 55 conceded.

So comparable stats, in my opinion.

Going into the tactic, we will see that a sweeper keeper on defend duty was used. This is mainly to make the goalkeeper act like another passing option when needed, to help the team avoid the opposition’s pressing game.

The back three are a ball playing defender on defend duty, a central defender on cover and a central defender on defend.

The defender on cover was used as a safeguard against through balls and if he fails to pick them up, there is always the sweeper keeper there.

Just make sure that here you use a player suited for this duty, otherwise you might suffer seeing him fail over and over again to recover the ball.

The full backs or in this case wing backs are very important in Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea tactic, as we have established.

They provide the width to the team, becoming passing options for both the midfield and the attack and giving the wingers the chance to cut inside knowing that their flank will be covered.

They also help creating overloads on either side, making it difficult for the opposition to cope with the pressure. This also affects the opposition the ability to start fast counterattacks, as defending against high up the pitch wing backs requires the team to use more players to defend, leaving fewer up front.

On the right side, we chose the attack duty while on the left side the support one. This was used at least in Tuchel’s games at Chelsea, it seemed like the right-sided wing back was pushing more up the pitch, running with ball at times.

While the left sided one stayed a bit back and played almost in the half spaces at times.

Cross more often and run wide with ball as player instructions for the right sided one.

The central midfielders are a central midfielder on support duty and a deep lying playmaker on defend.

Kovacic and Jorginho were masters of the midfield in Tuchel’s tactic. Kovacic pushed up the field as the ball progressed, while Jorginho covered and pushed up only when it was safe to do so.

 Both players were prominent on the ball, being the passing engines for the team.

This is what we want from our creative midfielders in this tactic, irrespective of the team managed.

Both are asked to mark tighter.

The front three are two inverted wingers on attack duty and one advanced forward. The inverted wingers are important as they naturally cut inside when the option is available, breaking the opposition’s defensive line in the process.

All three players are asked to mark tighter, while the left-sided one to cross from deep as well. Cross from deep might seem like the opposite of cutting inside, but it’s used to ask the player to always cross whenever he is unable to cut inside.

As mentality, I chose positive.

In possession, fairly wider attacking width and play out of defence. Slightly shorter or standard passing directness and a slightly higher tempo.

In transition, counter-press and distribute the ball to the center-backs through short kicks. We let the team choose if they need to counterattack or not.

And out of possession a high press and a higher defensive line. Trigger press more often and prevent the goalkeeper short distribution.

Just keep in mind that preventing the goalkeeper short distribution makes the players play higher up than their designated positions.

I had fun playing with this tactic and of course we got promoted to Ligue 2, with a difference of 20 points.

But it’s not the league opponents that make this tactic fun to play with, is the players you use for it.

Thomas Tuchel, the "tactical chameleon", adjusted his tactical principles and ideas to Chelsea’s squad at the time and made them a force to be reckoned with.

Irrespective of how he is being described as of late, I am sure there is more to come from him, tactically and in my opinion, he is one of the greatest managers in modern football.